Bárbula Tunnel (Spanish: ''Túnel de Bárbula'') is a partly-constructed railway tunnel in Venezuela. It is between

Las Trincheras Las Trincheras, also known as Las Trincheras de Aguas Calientes, is a locality near Valencia, Carabobo, Valencia, Venezuela. It is noted for its hot springs, which feed into the Aguas Calientes River (Carabobo), Aguas Calientes River. The name Tr ...

and Naguanagua in

Carabobo state Carabobo State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela, located in the north of the country, about two hours by car from Caracas. The state capital city is Valencia, Venezuela, Valencia, which is also the country's main in ...

. The tunnel has a length of 7.8 km (4.8 mi), which makes it the longest in South America. The tunnel is part of a projected line between the sea port city of

Puerto Cabello Puerto Cabello () is a city on the north coast of Venezuela. It is located in Carabobo State, about 210 km west of Caracas. As of 2011, the city had a population of around 182,400. The city is home to the largest and busiest port in the count ...

, Carabobo State, and the crossroads town of La Encrucijada,

Aragua State Aragua State (, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. It has plains, jungles and Caribbean beaches. The most popular beaches are Cata and Choroni. It has Venezuela's first national par ...

. Tunnels are required to provide a low gradient route through the mountains of the

Venezuelan Coastal Range The Venezuelan Coastal Range ( or ), also known as Venezuelan Caribbean Mountain System (), is a mountain range system and one of the eight natural regions of Venezuela, that runs along the central and eastern portions of Venezuela's northern coa ...

. Bárbula Tunnel takes its name from Bárbula, a locality near Naguanagua.

Geology

Granitic rocks are typical of the geology of the area, but clay and

alluvium Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

, requiring special ground improvement, have been described as being characteristic of the tunnel.

History of the project

In the 19th century the

Puerto Cabello and Valencia Railway The Puerto Cabello and Valencia railway is a defunct railway in Venezuela. The railway was constructed in the 1880s to link Valencia, then the country's second city, with the Caribbean port of Puerto Cabello. It closed in the 1950s. Planning the ...

was built along a similar route between Valencia and the coast. By following a river, the engineers were able to keep the tunnels on this line short, but they felt obliged to use a rack section to deal with the difficult gradients near Bárbula. The railway closed after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and traffic moved to road. Interest in railways revived in the country in the late 20th century. A

Metro Metro may refer to: Geography * Metro City (Indonesia), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban area with high ...

was constructed in Caracas and work was done on a commuter line between Caracas (

Libertador Simón Bolívar Terminal Caracas Libertador Simón Bolívar railway station is found in the southern part of Caracas, Venezuela, in an area known as La Rinconada. Overview The station is the Caracas terminus of the line Ezequiel Zamora I which connects the Tuy vall ...

) and

Cúa Cúa (founded in 1690) is a small city capital of the Urdaneta Municipality, located in the Miranda State (Estado Miranda) in the north of Venezuela with an altitude of 490 m. Cúa is noted for warm and clear weather, with year-round sunshine and ...

Financial problems

Completion of the line was scheduled for 2010. In 2016 a report relating to the Italian-based construction firm

Salini Impregilo Webuild S.p.A. (previously Salini Impregilo S.p.A.; ) is an Italian industrial group specialising in construction and civil engineering. The company was formally founded in 2014 as the result of the merger by incorporation of Salini into Impregi ...

described work on the project as "irregular and marked by slow payments by the client as a result of the country’s poor economic conditions, mainly related to the drop in the

price of oil The price of oil, or the oil price, generally refers to the spot price of a barrel () of benchmark crude oil—a reference price for buyers and sellers of crude oil such as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), Brent Crude, Dubai Crude, OPEC ...

References

{{coord missing, Venezuela Railway tunnels in South America Tunnels in Venezuela