The contract for the Portugal line is for 6.26 kilometres track and must be executed in 23 months. It was awarded to a joint venture of FCC and Portuguese company Conduril.

The project includes the necessary operations to undertake the infrastructure work, such as earth movement, drainage works, tunnels, infrastructures, and restoration of the affected services and rights of way, such as road over- and underpasses.

The section of line, which runs through the municipalities of Garrovillas de Alconétar and Santiago del Campo in Cáceres province, will have dual high-speed international gauge tracks designed to carry hybrid traffic (passengers and goods). A noteworthy feature is a 996-metre viaduct over the Almonte river. The project also includes three viaducts: over the rivers Santa Ana (341 metres), Villaluengo (431 metres) and Cagancha (431 metres).

The line also crosses the ancient Silver Road, which dates from Roman times. In coordination with the Extremadura Regional Government Ministry of Cultural Heritage, the solution adopted in this case involves an underpass 160 metres long with a free cross section of 85 square metres.

The Palencia contract refers to the section in that province of the North-Northwest High Speed Railway line, involving the line into the city of Palencia and the continuation towards León. This contract, worth 26 million euro, must be executed in 14 months.

It covers the work required to build an international-gauge track to provide provisional passage for high-speed trains through the city of Palencia, pending future work to integrate the line into the city centre and its environs. The goal is to enable Palencia and León to benefit from high-speed rail as soon as possible.

The work stretches from the Palencia South junction with the line from Venta de Baños up to the junction in the north with the Grijota-Becerril section of the Palencia-León-Asturias high-speed line. This 10.1-kilometre section of line runs through the municipalities of Villamuriel de Cerrato, Palencia and Grijota.

The southern link will include 500 metres of bed for a new gauge change section of track to accommodate trains travelling from Valladolid to Santander.

Palencia station will also be adapted to the new provisional situation. Platforms will be lengthened and upgraded, the underpass will be expanded, stairs will be renovated and elevators will be installed to improve accessibility. The station perimeter walls will be completed and the existing marquee will be extended.

Extensive experience in high-speed rail

FCC has extensive experience in building high-speed railway infrastructure, commencing in the mid-1980s, when it built four sections of the Madrid-Sevilla line as well as the Puerta de Atocha (Madrid) and Santa Justa (Sevilla) stations. It subsequently built ten sections of the Madrid-Barcelona line (over 90 kilometres in total) plus the Zaragoza-Delicias station. It has also built parts of other lines that are in service (Córdoba-Málaga, Madrid-Valladolid and Zaragoza-Huesca) and some of the principal infrastructures on the high-speed rail network, such as the Guadarrama and Pajares tunnels.

FCC is currently playing a leading role in expanding Spain's high-speed railway network, since it has close to 200 kilometres under construction. So far this year, it has been awarded the contracts for the access to the Sagrera station in Barcelona, the new station in Vigo and a section of the Murcia-Almería line.

Attached is a map of the AVE high-speed railway line construction in the Extremadura region.