8-metre sinkhole swallows bathroom and forces 93 homes to evacuate in Barcelona

8-metre sinkhole swallows bathroom and forces 93 homes to evacuate in Barcelona

The Putxet neighbourhood proge up to ground literally swallowed whole. The works on Barcelona's Line 9 metro have claimed a bathroom, a pizzeria and, along the way, the peace of mind of residents in five evacuated buildings. The figures: an eight-metre-wide, four-metre-deep hole that has forced the evacuation of 93 homes. While concrete mixers work against the clock, the tunnel boring machine is just 12 metres from the crater with no intention of stopping.

A precedent that repeats itself

It is not the first time an underground infrastructure project has put a neighbourhood on edge. El Carmel, in 2005, became the textbook example of disastrous management: demolished buildings, endless rehousing and claims that drag on for decades. Now the ghost of El Carmel has reappeared in a Sant Gervasi neighbourhood, where flats sell for over a million euros. The difference is that this time the affected residents' purchasing power does not guarantee a quick solution. Nor is it an isolated case: in Madrid, the extension of Line 7 left an entire municipality with affected blocks, and residents are still caught up in lawsuits and rehousing years later. The pattern repeats: works that drag on forever, insurance that does not cover, and administrations that wash their hands of it.

The invisible cost for owners

Who pays for hotels when insurance does not cover it? The City Council is offering municipal shelters to those who cannot afford a room. The irony: residents of one of Barcelona's most expensive areas sleeping on emergency mattresses. Meanwhile, owners with mortgages keep paying the bank for a home they may never see standing again. Businesses, like the two-storey Chinese bazaar or the dental practice, keep paying their rent without being able to open. A bill nobody seems willing to foot. The affected residents of Sant Gervasi, mostly financially sound, antiestéticar that any delay in their claim will leave them without credit for a new mortgage. Bureaucracy, as always, is the silent enemy.

The official version and the cracks

The Generalitat (Catalonia's regional government) points to a "small ground movement" caused by the tunnel boring machine. The machine, now 12 metres from the sinkhole, is not stopping. Evacuated residents watch as cracks spread through the ground floors of the buildings. Demolitions are being mooted, but nobody confirms it. Regional minister Paneque has promised a reassessment on Wednesday; residents, who have already spent a night away, do not know when they will return. The institutional response, as in El Carmel, smells of quick fixes. Meanwhile, the hole is being filled with concrete, but the question is whether that will solve the problem or merely hide it.

The story of Putxet looks far too much like that of El Carmel, with one difference: the value of the land. If the tunnel swallows luxury homes, the pressure will be enormous. The underlying question is whether the administration is prepared to bear the real cost of a project already decades behind schedule and over budget. As of today, the only certainty is that the bathroom of the Verona pizzeria has disappeared. The rest hangs in the air.