A joint venture between Spanish contractors Acciona and Ferrovial has won a €171m contract to build a 31km section of high-speed rail in southeast Spain.

The railway will link the town of Pulpí in Almería province with Lorca in Murcia. The contract includes building a station in the Murcian village of Almendricos and the renovation of others in Pulpí and Puerto Lumbreras.

The team will also build a tunnel in Rincón, erect 1,250m of bridges and 10 viaducts, as well as 28 other structures.

The project will form part of the Mediterranean Corridor, a proposed Trans-European Network that will run the length of the Mediterranean coast between Gibraltar and the Ukraine via Budapest (see further reading).

The Spanish section will include a 1,300km high-speed stretch that will connect the port of Algeciras in southwest Spain to Barcelona and the French border.

Work on the Murcian project is due to be completed in 34 months.