The central project in the work of Antoni Gaudi has been implemented for 125 years, and it is planned to complete it in another 30. But all these works may be in vain if the government's plans to connect Madrid and Barcelona with a high-speed railway are realized.
This is the last section of this route, which must take passengers to the very center of Barcelona. This is important in order for the new mode of communication between the two cities to compete successfully with the same route, which is considered the most popular in the world. The time difference between the train and the plane will be small in this case: the new trains will cover the entire route between the two cities (600 km) in two and a half hours.
Next to the Gaudi masterpiece, it is planned to dig a tunnel with a diameter of 12 m, and the soil in this section contains a large percentage of sand and is saturated with water. But even if the church does not wash away or the soil subsides, vibrations from high-speed trains can cause cracks in the walls of the monument or the collapse of floor slabs, which are 75 m above the floor of the building's interior.
Residents defended the symbol of their city, pickets and signatures are being collected. The Archbishop of Barcelona and the International Council for Monuments and Historic Sites also opposed the construction. But the Spanish government and city authorities are not going to change their plans, convincing critics of the project that it is completely harmless for the Sagrada Familia church.