Ciudad FCC

Description

The Zaragoza Delicias Station is a railway station located in the City of Zaragoza, which is the sixth largest station in Spain with respect to the number of passengers and is also one of its main communication nodes.

The Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona high-speed line required a new station that could make the national track width railway traffic compatible with that of the international width. 

It includes all the necessary infrastructures, together with circulation highways and bus parking bays. Building annexes are located in a sector intended for the Railway Museum, together with a recreational area dedicated to transport.

The Delicias Station is a 188,000 m² complex designed to handle four million passengers a year, for which reason it includes all the infrastructures required for this function, in addition to bus parking bays, two hotels, a business centre, leisure and cultural areas, a museum and underground parking space for 1,880 vehicles.

The station is a rhomboid measuring 400 metres long by 150 metres wide that contains two vestibules for arrivals and departures and a platform level for ten tracks.

The platforms are reached through the vestibules or from a very large transversal walkway that also connects with the parking lot, together with the railway and bus stations. The latter is on three levels, with forty bays at the same height as the railway platforms.

The entire building is enclosed by a metal roof weighing 5,500 tonnes. The roof structure of the Zaragoza Delicias Station is 370 metres long and is made up of large cable-stayed metal arches, with 150 metres span and 14-metres high. These arches have 43 metres separations. The cable stay of each arch is supported by four vertical suspension elements. The lower arch cable stay supports the actual roof, which forms facets resolved with pyramid-shaped structures.

This design means that the metal arches are visible from outside the station, whereas inside, the skylights and suspended wooden ceilings make up a complex of great aesthetic and technical value, resulting in the largest covered area without columns in Spain. The roof structure construction project was developed by the "Special Works Service" of the FCC Construcción Technical Services.

Highlights

• It is the sixth busiest station in Spain for number of travellers.
• Better passenger comfort. Connections with various bus lines, a taxi rank at the door and a cable-car service.
• The station has become an important connection node within the Madrid - Barcelona High Speed Line.
• This station constitutes the largest covered space without piers in Spain.