In today's New York Times there was an article about plans to build a new train tunnel near the foundations of the Sagrada Familia church. Critics say that the tunnel would threaten the stability of the building. Click here to read the article.

I hope the tunnel is built as designed and as soon as possible, taking all the safety and security measures, of course. I have to trust the civil engineers who have developed the project and, evidently, they are aware of the Sagrada Familia's existence, so I trust them when they say it is safe. The tunnel will go well deep into the ground (130 feet) and a safety screen of concrete pillars will be built protecting SF's foundations from the tunnel.

This tunnel has a delay of years and it is mandatory to connect the high-speed railway from Barcelona to the French border and, thus, to the European high-speed railways network.

You think they could wait to put this tunnel in until the Sagrada Familia is finish.

The engineers have planned for it, a train passing by the Sagrada Familia. Or put it this way.

The enginners have taken account of a high speed train traveling under the Sagrada Familia. They do not want the Sagrada Familia falling top of a train passing by killing all the passengers on the train.

Bill

The trains won't pass at high-speed, because the tunnel has stations at both its ends, Sants and La Sagrera, and all trains will stop at both. The tunnel won't be longer than 5-6 kilometers, so the trains will circulate at a similar speed than a Metro train. And it has been decades since Metro trains pass besides Sagrada Familia, much more superficially than the projected tunnel, and SF has not fallen yet.