Madrid Completes All New Tunnels for its Metro ExpansionAll tunnelling required as part of the 2003-2007 expansion plan of the Madrid metro ended on 27th September, 2006 on Line 7 to east of Madrid. This eastward extension will give service to Villa Olimpica, Coslada and San Fernando de Henares. Regional president Esperanza Aguirre attended the end of tunnelling in the last station on the extended line 7. A more than 12 km tunnel was completed, as an Herrenknecht EPB shield broke through into the station completing its drive. The new line has eight stations (Estadio Olimpico, Barrio del Puerto, Coslada, La Rambla, San Fernando, Jarama, Henares and Hospital del Henares) and reservations have been made to add two more stations in the future in Villa Olimpica when the area develops. The regional government has invested EUR650 million in the new line, which will benefit to 120,000 citizens and will increase demand on the existing line 7.'Mascatiza', the 9.4 m-diameter TBM (machine S-278) used by Dragados, excavated the Coslada-San Fernando de Henares-Coslada Hospital section of the line. Read E-News Weekly 30/2006. Visit www.herrenknecht.comIn addition, Mrs Aguirre launched on 4th October, 2006 a TBM nicknamed 'La Adelantada' that will extend Line 8 of the metro to Madrid Barajas airport's Terminal 4 (T-4). This is a 9.4 m-diameter Mitsubishi-NFM Technologies shield machine. It will excavate 1.4 km of the 2.5 km of tunnel to extend the line. End of tunnelling is scheduled within three months. Tunnelling, executed by FCC, will be achieved before the end of the year and it is scheduled that citizens will benefit from this new metro service before May 2007. Visit www.nfm-technologies.comThe metro to Terminal T-4 will allow travellers to reach the new airport terminal from Nuevos Ministerios station in a bit more than twenty minutes. The airport will therefore be served by two stations, the existing station to Terminals 1, 2 and 3 and the future final stop to T-4, where a subterranean space had already been prepared when the terminal was built. The subway extension to Barajas was not included in the 2003-2007 expansion programme, but the Madrid regional government finally decided to develop the project under a concession agreement. Official ceremony celebrating the breakthrough of the east extension of metro line 7, which completed all tunnels within the 2003-2007 expansion programme of the Madrid metro On 11th October, Mrs Aguirre visited the site of Line 3 to Villaverde to verify the good advance of track laying works. The Madrid regional government builds seven new stations (Almendrales, San Fermin, Hospital 12 de Octubre, Ciudad de los Angeles, Cruce de Villaverde, San Cristobal and Villaverde Alto) and almost nine kilometres to extend Line 3 from Legazpi. The journey between Villaverde Alto and Legazpi will take twelve minutes, while another ten minutes will be necessary to reach La Moncloa, at the other end of the line. Workers have already installed 65% of the tracks. The extension will benefit directly to 160,000 people. The regional government has allocated EUR620 million to this scheme.On completion of the ongoing expansion programme, the Madrid metro system will expand from 231 km of tracks and 238 stations three years ago to 313 km and 318 stations. 90% of the Madrid population will be living within the influence range of the metro, when the present term in office of the regional government ends. Click es/17, here and here. View a map here. Visit www.madrid.org 42/06.