The most ambitious and transformative works project in the city of Madrid is about to start after the summer, marking a milestone in the infrastructure and mobility of the capital. These works, some of which will start in October, represent the greatest effort made so far by the municipal and regional administrations in the last two legislative periods, and promise to significantly reshape the urban physiognomy.
The long-awaited works to bury the A-5 motorway and create the Paseo Verde del Suroeste will begin in October this year. With an estimated duration of 25 months, this ambitious project aims to transform mobility and the urban environment in the area, returning pedestrian spaces to residents and improving air quality.
On February 1, the City Council’s Governing Board approved the contract to carry out these works, led by the Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility department, headed by Borja Carabante. Eight companies participated in the tender, with the winning construction companies being Ferrovial, FCC Construcción and the Dragados-Acciona Construcción alliance.
The project, which has a total budget of 347.4 million euros, is divided into two main lots. The first, worth more than 175 million euros, covers the section that goes from Avenida del Padre Piquer to Batán. This lot includes civil works, the construction of the surface road and the installation of a new roundabout on Avenida de los Poblados, designed to improve traffic distribution in the area.
The second lot, valued at 171.4 million euros, extends from Batán to Avenida de Portugal. Like the first lot, this one also includes civil works, the adaptation of the surface road system and the integration of necessary installations, such as the connection with the existing tunnel on Avenida de Portugal. In addition, the communications and telematic connections of the new tunnel will be integrated with the Calle 30 management system.
This project will reduce the presence of vehicles on the road by 90%, which will significantly contribute to reducing polluting emissions. The intervention will not only benefit the environment, but will also improve pedestrian mobility and public transport, while alleviating traffic problems at critical points such as Paseo de Extremadura, Batán and Boadilla.
With the completion of the works, residents will recover public spaces and progress will be made towards a more sustainable and habitable city model.
Army Lands
A preliminary step to be able to tackle the project in its entirety is the unblocking of Operation Camp, which will also allow the central government to create more than 10,000 homes on former Army land, 60% of which will be protected. The project will be promoted at the first plenary session in September.
This is one of the few points on which Cibeles and Moncloa are in agreement. It was two years ago when Pedro Sánchez announced, in the State of the Nation debate, that this urban development operation was being reactivated in the Latina district: a 211-hectare plot of land where the old Army barracks once stood and which had been unused for decades.
In fact, we have to go back thirty years in time, when the then Minister of Defence, José Bono, and Housing, María Antonia Trujillo, and the Mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, signed an agreement for the construction in two phases of up to 22,100 homes in this military zone to the west of the capital, whose last barracks were demolished.
The housing policy undertaken by José Luis Martínez-Almeida’s City Council has made the Council the first interested party in reactivating the operation. In fact, in the electoral campaign of July 2023, the mayor promised 12,000 new homes, of which 50% would be allocated to young people and young families.
Once the process has been initiated, the works are expected to begin at the end of 2025.
Covering of the M-30
We will have to wait a few more months to see progress on another of the most anticipated projects of José Luis Martínez-Almeida’s current mandate. This is the covering of the M-30 as it passes over the Ventas bridge, an initiative that is part of the mayor’s electoral promises and that will begin to become a reality at the end of 2024.
This project aims to transform one of the capital’s main arteries, known for its high traffic density, into a greener and more accessible space for Madrid residents. The project will cover an area of 20,000 square metres, creating a green platform that will serve to seamlessly link the districts of Salamanca and Ciudad Lineal.
This new space will have gardens, play areas and areas for exercise, becoming a new urban lung in the heart of Madrid.
The extension of the cover is projected to be more than 300 metres long, and the budget allocated for its execution amounts to 87.8 million euros. According to the planned schedule, the works will begin in the spring of 2025 and are expected to be completed by the spring of 2027. This intervention, in addition to beautifying the city, seeks to eliminate the physical barrier represented by the M-30, improving connectivity and the quality of life of the residents of both districts.
City of Justice
A consortium formed by ACS and Acciona and another made up of OHLA, Azvi and Rover have been selected by the Community of Madrid, headed by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, to be awarded the two lots for the construction of the future City of Justice in Valdebebas for 542 million euros, the largest City of Justice in the world, which will start in five months. The regional government will be in charge of its direct management.
Its construction will be divided into two lots and planned in different phases with a total investment of up to 683 million euros in the period 2024-2028.
The regional government’s project involves unifying a total of 26 court buildings spread across the capital, which now serve more than 30,000 people, into a single complex located in the Valdebebas neighbourhood.
The Madrid City of Justice will occupy around 236,000 square metres above ground level and 198,000 below ground level on a plot of land with a surface area of 132,000 m2, which represents an increase of 61% compared to the sum of the entire area currently allocated to these bodies. In addition, reserve areas will be created with an additional space of 28% of the total to absorb the growth of the judicial system over the next 40 years or so.
The new infrastructure will be placed ahead of Istanbul’s Justice Palace – 300,000 m2 -, Florence’s Palazzo di Giustizia – 135,000 m2 -, Kuala Lumpur’s Courts Complex – 120,000 m2 -, Paris’s Court of Justice – 120,000 m2 -, Missouri’s Thomas F. Eagleton United States Courthouse – 91,767 m2 -, Calgary’s Courts Center – 90,000 m2 -, New York’s Bronx County Hall of Justice – 72,000 m2 – and Brisbane’s Queen Elizabeth II Courts of Law – 60,000 m2 -, according to the analysis carried out by the General Directorate of Judicial Infrastructure.
The people of Madrid will have access to the largest judicial headquarters in the world and, at the same time, the most accessible. It will be fully digitalised, as well as equipped with the best energy efficiency systems.