Adif and the Junta de Extremadura have signed a protocol for the suppression of two steps at the level located in the municipal terms of Almendralejo and Villafranca de los Barros, in the province of Badajoz. The protocol has been initialled by the president of Adif and Adif AV, Ángel Contreras, and the Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Housing of the Junta de Extremadura, Manuel Martín.

Integrated into the Méida-Los Rosales railway line, the passes are located at the junction with the autonomous roads EX 105R to Zarza de Alange and EX 360 to Fuente del Maestre. Both come with A3 class protection, i.e. light and acoustic signage and automatic semi-barriers.

The steps will be replaced by steps at different levels, thus increasing the safety conditions of the transport infrastructures at this point, both for railway circulations and for road traffic on these roads of regional ownership.

The protocol establishes a framework for cooperation between Adif and the Autonomous Community of Extremadura in order to carry out studies for the suppression of these steps that have an AxT value (with "A" being the number of daily vehicle circulations and "T" the number of daily train circulations) greater than 1,500.

According to the regulations, the costs of suppression and reorganisation will be distributed halfway between the infrastructure manager and the road owner.

Adif will be in charge of drafting the projects and the execution of the works of suppression of the two steps and will finance 50% of all the actions. In addition, it will take charge of the expropriations of private land necessary for the execution of the works.

After its execution, Adif will dismantle the facilities and fence of the track, in order to prevent access to the railway platform and promote the use of the new infrastructure.

The Junta de Extremadura, for its part, will assume the financing of the remaining 50% and will make available, free of charge to Adif, the land of regional ownership necessary for the execution of the new roads and works of passage at different level.

Likewise, it will show its agreement to the definitive closure of the level crossings and will assume the ownership of the new vials, the cross-level crossings and their accesses, as well as the subsequent maintenance, including the set of operations of conservation, repair, replacement, cleaning and custody of the vials, the enclosures and cross-level crossings and their accesses.

28 level steps suppressed since 2021

The community of Extremadura has 237 level steps, of which 161 are located in Badajoz and 76 in Cáceres. Since 2021, Adif has eliminated a total of 28 steps at the community level, located on the Madrid-Valencia lines of Alcántara (Planetary Fork – Monfragüe), Monfragüe-Plasencia, Aljucén-Cáceres and Zafra-Jerez de los Caballeros.

These actions contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 (Health and Welfare), 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities).