Adif’s Board of Directors has approved a further modification to the electrification contract for the Salamanca–Fuentes de Oñoro section of Line 120 Vilar Formoso–Medina del Campo.
This amendment increases the budget by €554,680.26, bringing the total to €34,875,162.24. The delivery period is also extended to 102 months from the start, compared with 54 months set in the 2022 revision and the original 18 months envisaged in 2018.
Four years of delays
The scheme, awarded in February 2018 for €31.7 million to the Fuentes de Oñoro consortium, has accumulated more than four years of delay against its initial schedule. The main causes have been slow administrative processing by Adif in approving project modifications and insufficient budget allocations in several fiscal years.
The Salamanca City Council has also contributed to the delay, having requested changes to the loading gauge clearance of two overbridges crossing the लाइन within the municipal boundary. Although Adif accepted these requests, it took time to formally incorporate them into the revised design, halting works at those locations מאז August 2020.
Despite these setbacks, the project is now in its final phase. If no further changes arise, works could be completed this year, followed by energisation and safety testing and subsequent authorisation by the State Railway Safety Agency (AESF).
The section forms part of the Atlantic Corridor and extends the electrified route from Medina del Campo to Salamanca, in service since December 2015. The single-track Iberian-gauge line is being electrified at 25 kV AC, supporting speeds of up to 200 km/h, with three traction substations and six autotransformer stations distributed along the route.