DESCRIPTION
In 2013, in full debate on the suitability of the new southern rail access to the Port of Castellón, the Castellón Chamber of Commerce commissioned AUG-ARQUITECTOS, SLP with a report evaluating the different alternatives presented by the consultants working for the General Directorate of Railways of the Ministry of Public Works, given the surprising changes in criteria they presented.
In the report prepared by AUG-ARQUITECTOS, SLP and which was presented at the offices of the Castellón Chamber of Commerce, in the presence of all local and regional authorities, it was recommended.
- The valuation of the territorial and landscape compatibility of the new railway connection from the RGIF Valencia – Tarragona line to the Port of Castellón with sectoral legislation, to guarantee the territorial integration of its route with full operational and rail functionality, weighing efficiently technical, economic, social and environmental criteria and implementing corrective measures to improve the territorial and landscape integration of the project.
- The recovery of the enhancement of the “north solution” to facilitate the rail by-pass along the Vila-real – Almassora – Castellón de La Plana conurbation, given that the “bag bottom” configuration raised in the two solutions developed in the informative study involves significant restrictions on rail traffic, thus reducing its competitiveness. Raising the railway by-pass in the design phase would allow incorporating the Informative Study and the P.G.E. de Castellón, under review, the design parameters recommended by FERRMED in the surroundings of urban centers, to free its route from the easements inherent in the traffic of dangerous goods and thus avoid saturation of the route by local traffic in urban environments as is the one that would affect in this case, the “Central Solution”. Budgetary availability and service demand do not allow its execution to be addressed at an early stage, but it must be an evaluated and contrasted horizon; the objective should not be other than to free its execution from all the administrative burden that this type of actions entails and which, if integrated into the present procedure, would represent a highly desirable saving in terms of costs, time and resources.
- The identification and evaluation of the supervening circumstances, not taken into account in the informative study, that may jeopardize the viability of the Project, such as the Judgments and Cars issued by the Supreme Court and the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community, regarding the municipal urban planning of Castellón de La Plana, since the nullity of the definitive approval of the General Plan of Urban Planning of Castellón de La Plana of the year 2000 has been decreed and consequently, the approval agreements linked to the Special Land Reserve Plan for the Logistics Platform of Castellón and Parc Castelló.
- The revision of the management model linked to the special land reserve plan for the logistics platform of Castellón, since the expropriation system selected to obtain the land may condition its materialization, given the financial difficulties of the promoting administration, and the paradox that the railway branch of access to the Platform was executed without it having been executed. We recommend taking into consideration the proposal made by the PortCastelló Port Authority, which suggests enabling the active participation of private initiative in the promotion, management and development of the Logistics Platform, adapting urban planning work to new needs.
And it concluded by recommending the report, that the solution that the General Directorate of Railways of the Ministry of Development should finally adopt would guarantee the rail operability of the new rail accesses to the port of Castellón and its logistics platform in the medium and long term. To this end, a phased development was proposed, so that the planning of the railway by-pass could be integrated into the technical alternatives evaluated in the Informative Study, subjecting its execution to financial availability and the proven existence of some service demands that required improve the railway operability of the “bag bottom” configuration of the Informative Study.
DETAILS OF THE PROJECT
Prometer: Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation of Castellón
