According to Diario Area, the head of SECEGSA's Economic Development, Pablo Díaz, is seeking the opinion of public in the Campo-Gibraltar region for the railway tunnel to connect Spain and Morocco under the strait.

SECEGSA is the the Spanish committee for promoting the fixed link (The Moroccans have SNED on their turn for the same purpase).

The fact that this initiative comes when there are problems between Spain and Morocco due to Cueta underlines the importance of such a fixed ink for the economies of the Iberian Peninsula and Northern Africa.

The proposal for a subsea link connecting the European and African continents is not new. A tunnel had been proposed as early as in 1930 but the enthusiasm died reportedly when a survey concluded that the technology was not there to tunnel under the Mediterranean sea.

The joint studies for such a link had been launched by Juan Carlos I of Spain and Kings Hassan II of Morocco in 1979. Followed by the setting up of SECEGSA and SNED in respective contries, some studies and yet another agreement in 1989 between two countries. It is a slow burning project but it is a persistent one.

As recently as in 2009, a feasibility report has been proposed to EU. And that was it really. Since then, it is a back burner, reminded by events like dthe SECEGSA visit to Tarifa mayor.

Technically, a tunnel across the Strait of Tunnel is considered more complex than that of the Channel tunnel between UK and France. Mainly because of the depth of the sea and the geology of the area -severe earthquake area- and is deemed as less stable than that under the English Channel.  The presence of two deep Quaternary clay channels makes it a difficult place for tunnelling.

If built, the tunnel would be "38,67 kilometers long with 27,75 kilometers under the water, with a maximum depth of 475 meters and a slope of 3%". Over the depth: It would be deeper than any tunnel built so far. The deepest tunnel now is Norway's Ryfylke Tunnel, is 291 meters below sea level. Another one Rogfast,  (under construction) will be deeper than Ryfylke but still would be shallower than the Strait of Gibraltar tunnel: 392 meters.

It was written in 'El Pueblo de Ceuta' that a study conducted by the University of Zurich in collaboration with Herrenknecht concluded that designing and manufacturing a TBM which could bore the tunnel is feasible.

When implemented, the Gibraltar submarine tunnel will be the third intercontinental tunnel of Europe, The first ones are in Turkey. The immersed submarine railway tunnel in Istanbul called Marmaray and the second one, again in Istanbul the bored submarine tunnel Eurasian tunnel.

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image SECEGSA.