Ayesa Engineering joins the future Seville-Huelva high-speed railway line

In a joint venture with INES Ingenieros Consultores, the company will draft the basic project and construction design for the Majarabique-Valencina de la Concepción section.

The project will incorporate advanced technology and digital innovation, including the use of BIM methodology.

Ayesa Engineering is joining the Seville-Huelva high-speed rail project, one of the most emblematic and strategic infrastructure initiatives in southern Spain. The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, through ADIF AV, has awarded the company the contract for drafting the basic project and construction design of the Majarabique-Valencina de la Concepción section, in a joint venture with Ines Ingenieros Consultores. The contract, corresponding to Lot 1, is valued at €6.62 million and will be executed over a period of 42 months in two phases.

This contract allocation is part of a set of five contracts totalling a value of €31.4 million and represents the first stage of a €1.6 billion investment, aimed at connecting Huelva to Spain´s national high-speed rail network. The future line will reduce travel time between the two cities to just 25 minutes, compared to the current hour and a half, contributing to more sustainable, efficient and safe rail mobility.

The designs will set out the scope of civil works required to develop the railway platform. Once completed, the public information phase will begin, followed by the construction projects. This will accelerate the tendering process for the works, although construction itself is not expected to begin before 2030.

Ayesa´s role will incorporate advanced technology and digital innovation, including the use of BIM methodology, collaborative CDE environments with Autodesk Construction Cloud, geo-referenced databases, and drones for data capture in areas that are difficult to access, such as viaducts over rivers and highways.

A unique section

The Majarabique- Valencina de la Concepción section, which runs entirely though the province of Seville, spans approximately 8.1km. It includes the creation of a new railway junction in Majarabique, made up of single-track branches that will allow for all four possible directions of travel: Madrid–Huelva, Sevilla–Huelva, Huelva–Madrid and Huelva–Sevilla.

Among its more notable features are two major viaducts – one over the Guadalquivir river, measuring 1,070m in length, and another over the Santa Cruz neighbourhood in Camas, extending 1,484m.

In addition, this section of railways includes a third viaduct, measuring 297m long, over the Guadalquivir dam area, six smaller viaducts within the Majarabique junction, as well as five underpasses and two overpasses.

Strategic milestone

With this contract, Ayesa resumes its role in the development of high-speed rail platforms in Spain, after several years focused on high-speed and conventional railway projects. The company has a strong track record in the rail sector, with previous experience in landmark projects such as the Madrid-Barcelona-French Border High-Speed Line (Llinars-Riells and Subsection XII-B), the Bobadilla-Granada High-Speed Line (Bobadilla Junction section), and the Madrid-Extremadura-Portuguese Border High-Speed Line (Talavera de la Reina–Calera subsection of the Madrid–Oropesa section).

According to Eduardo Laureano, Head of the Railways Division, and Francisco J. Valencia, Project Manager, “this contract represents a major strategic milestone for the Railways Division and reinforces the company´s commitment to developing sustainable and intelligent infrastructure that promotes territorial cohesion and the mobility of the future”.

The construction of the High-Speed line between Seville and Huelva, stretching approximately 95.5km and designed for speeds of up to 350km/h, responds to a long-standing demand from the province of Huelva. In addition to improving connection with Seville and promoting more sustainable mobility, the new infrastructure will strengthen future links with Portugal´s Algarve region, generating new economic and social opportunities across the region.