Page 222 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 6

Coronado, José María. Ureña, José María.

Ribalaygua, et.al. (2004) consider three territorial scale projects: Airport, El Reino de Don
Quijote Kingdom and the “Polígono Industrial Avanzado”.
At that moment, the airport was at the time in its initial building phases besides the HSR line
(see Figure 6). The expectations were very important: a relevant air cargo activity thanks to
the space availability and the size of the infrastructure big enough for the biggest existing
planes and space for freight warehouses. Also, the arrival of low cost passenger companies
was expected, thanks to the high speed connections to Madrid, even a High Speed Rail station
in the airport was planned. The terminal was also going to be connected with a new crossing
point of two motorways linking Lisboa with Valencia and Madrid with Cordoba, and also the
connection with conventional rail was envisaged.
It was expected that the airport would have had an important potential market, due to
land availability and an uncongested air space and due to its location besides a motorway
crossing point and the HSR. This will allow, the airport promoters thought, would open up
opportunities for merchandises and passengers traffics.

Today the airport is completed, has been in operation for about four years and then it was
closed. The important financial depth of the airport and the important involvement of the
regional Caja de Ahorros has meant that, following the airport’s closure, it has been sold
at a much lower price and is in the process of being reopened, although it is not still sure
when this reopening will take place. The new project is mainly oriented to freight and plane
maintenance services, with a new big hangar under construction at this moment. The second
consequence is that the regional Caja de Ahorros has been absorbed by a conglomerate of
other public Banks.
In the meantime, some of the activities that were thought for this airport have been attracted
by other airports (heavy plane maintenance by the Teruel Airport, European War Helicopter
by the Albacete airport, etc.). The huge industrial area that was established and furbished
besides the airport is totally empty.
The Don Quijote Kingdom Tourist destination was described by Ribalaygua, et.al. (2004) as a
residential land that was already considered in 1997 city urban plan. In 1999 its surface was
significantly increased (doubled) when a new leisure development project was proposed to
the city council with hotels, a thematic park, golf courses and 6000 new housing units. It was
a real state land development that should have increased substantially the residential land
of the city and that may have change its urban structure, because this new development is
8 km apart from the existing nucleus, divided by the high-speed line, with the casinos and
thematic park in one side and the golf courses in the other (see Figure 6). When Ribalaygua
et al.(2004) wrote their article, the smaller golf course and some of the infrastructure
was under construction, while permits were expected to start building the first residential
developments.
Nowadays only a small part of the infrastructure investment (streets) is done and no houses
(6.000 were planned) have been built and from the Tourist facilities (Casinos, thematic park
and 36 holes Golf Course) only a 9-hole golf course is in operation. The developers have gone
bankrupt and there are no news about possible plans for the half urbanized land.

The Polígono Industrial Avanzado located besides the HSR station was described by Ribalaygua,
et.al. (2004) as a 24 hectares industrial area also besides an existing one by the traditional
road to the east. This new Advanced Industrial Area was supposedly proposed for activities/
businesses interested to develop new technologies and services and making use of the near
university campus and its privileged accessibility. This initiative received substantial financial
support by the EU due to its proximity to HSR and to being linked to new technologies.

220 360.revista de alta velocidad