Juan Carlos I Tunnel Breaks Through in VielhaThe junction between the two drives of the new Vielha tunnel in Aran valley in the Spanish Pyrenees was made at 12:57 pm on 2nd March, 2005. The new underground link on road N-230 between Upper Ribagorça and Aran valley is a 5,230 m long, 12 m wide passage (14 m with the pavements) that carries three lanes, the one in the middle being reversible according to traffic needs. Over 100 people attended the breakthrough ceremony presided by Joan Rangel, a delegate from the government of Catalonia, Joaquim Nadal, head of the territorial policy and public works department, and other officials. The breakthrough took place approximately in the middle of the tunnel, which means at about 2,500 m from each mouth. A backhoe excavator went to the face that had to be holed through and with a hammer began to dig the remaining last two metres of rock. The building JV formed by OHL, Copcisa and Comsa employed four Atlas Copco drill rigs for the job, two three-boom Rocket Boomer WL3 C for the north and south drives and two two-boom Rocket Boomer L2 C for the shelters and cross cuts to the old tunnel. 65,000 MN-12 Swellex bolts, 4 m-long, have been installed. Visit www.atlascopco.es, www.facedrilling.com and www.drillersclub.com and www.swellex.comThe project is six months behind schedule and EUR15 million above budget due to water ingress and a fault, so that the final cost will end up at EUR143 million instead of EUR128 million. It is planned to open the new tunnel in February or March 2006. The opening of the infrastructure is long awaited because the existing Alfonso XIII tunnel is for most motorists very claustrophobic due to the narrowness of the roadway and the little headroom.The second Vielha tunnel will be a model for safety, totalling 1,186 lights, 442 emergency lighting units on the walls, more than 100 signs to regulate and inform on the traffic status, 25 fire hydrants, 12 carbon monoxide analysers and 8,673 sprinklers that will activate in case of fire. There will be also a closed circuit television network and shelters, connected each 400 metres to the old tunnel, that runs 100 m parallel to the new passage. 10/05.