Page 192 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 6

Fernández-Ges, Andrés.

The construction was in a hurry because of the institutional commitment to have the line
working before the elections in March 2004. The HSR line Madrid-Lleida was inaugurated in
October 2003, with a main stop in Zaragoza.
The station was a huge building covering a surface of 130.000 square meters, with an inner
space of 600 meters long and 180 meters wide and an inner height of 21 meters. The total cost
of the station was of 110 million euros. In the rush to have the HSR trains operating some parts
of the building were not finished. The building had operating only one of the two entrance
lobbies, the one intended for departures. Neither were finished the hotels, offices, the Rail
Museum and the Bus Central Station.

The building received some prizes, as the FAD Prize of Architecture in 2004 and the Brunel Prize
in 2005. But soon have several critics from the public. The position of the tunnel matched with
the dominant wind direction making the interior very cold. The cost of putting the climate
system in the huge inner space discouraged ADIF, the new name of the state managing company,
of implementing the installation.
But the part that suffered more by the stresses for finishing were the urban surroundings of the
station. Also one access to the building was provided, from the Avenue of Navarre. In the parking,
of two floors and 1.200 parking spaces, in a huge space between the station and the Avenue of
Navarra, the roof was finished with the waterproofing layer, giving an unpleasant landscape in
the area. The rest of the existing rail and road infrastructures were neither removed.

Fig 15. Delicias Intermodal Station environment in the year 2006. Source: ZAV.

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