The future Sants station redraws access to the AVE and Rodalies

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Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta have their most demanding project in hand, the expansion and renovation of Sants station, at a time of maximum intensity in their career, with projects in different phases in Dubai, China, Mexico, France, Albania, Portugal and Taiwan, among others. “Sants is a project of great complexity, we have never had one of this magnitude on the table,” says Vilalta. “We are working on a highly complex infrastructure that does not stop during construction, and this makes the work very difficult,” he points out. Furthermore, in parallel with the first phases of their project – which now focuses on the recovery of the environment, especially the emblematic Plaça dels Països Catalans, and the new high-speed and commuter train halls – Adif is carrying out some thirty small projects to improve facilities. The first significant change that will be seen will occur around the station, which was previously like a roundabout around Plaça dels Països Catalans. In the future, traffic will be limited to the sea side, next to the Parc de l'Espanya Industrial. Likewise, the RCR project for Plaça dels Països Catalans, an award-winning work by Helio Piñón and Albert Viaplana, is based on the conclusions of a citizen participation process and on "restoring the original project" of the square and expanding it to double the current space, with a kind of passepartout that includes various points of vegetation. The works on the square are scheduled to be completed between the end of the year and the beginning of 2027, while the expansion of the entrances will continue until February 2028. To make the station more open to the city, Sants will also have an access on the mountain side and an access on the sea side. Both will open during the last quarter of this year. “The station had become small, but, moreover, the expansion is necessary due to the liberalization of operators. Now trains pass through Sants with much greater frequency,” points out the architect from the studio responsible for the project, Noèlia Baldayo.