The project to connect Spain and Morocco through a tunnel under the Straits of Gibraltar, which has been officially studied since 1979 when Morocco and Spain created state societies to study this endeavor (the SNED and Secegsa, respectively), is once again gaining strength.
Especially after the agreements signed, as a result of Brexit, between the UK and Morocco to improve import conditions to the British territory. This includes the abolition of tariffs for tomatoes. 25% of the tomatoes and 75% of the berries consumed by the United Kingdom come from Morocco and the post-Brexit agreement achieved in October 2019 will consolidate and increase these commercial relationships.
Now that the UK is out of the EU, trade is just one of the areas in which the two countries can get closer. A connection between Tangier and Gibraltar could also help activate tourism once the restrictions due to the pandemic are lifted. Apart from the tunnel, both countries are studying the possibility of creating maritime routes for passengers and goods and increasing air connections.
2030 or 2040
The project between the United Kingdom and Morocco is, at this point, still only a declaration of intentions in the face of the new framework proposed as a result of Brexit. However, this work is already well advanced by Spain and Morocco with an approximate date: the 2030s or 2040s. This endeavor would require the help of the private sector due to the very high cost it would have.
According to the studies carried out by Secegsa, the most viable project, after more than 40 years of study and more than a century of proposals, is a 38.67-kilometer-long tunnel that unites the two shores of the Strait between Punta Paloma, in Tarifa, and Punta Malabata, near Tangier. The submarine section of the tunnel would be 27.75 kilometers long, at a maximum depth of 475 meters and a slope of 3%.
In recent months, the heads of Secegsa have met with political and social representatives of Campo de Gibraltar to inform them about the project. In the last meeting, Pablo Diaz, the head of the Socio-economic Development Area of Secegsa, told the mayor of San Roque, Juan Carlos Ruiz Boix, that the building of the tunnel could start in the coming decades.
Source: europasur.es