Madrid has a ghost highway. It is not that it appears and disappears, it is always present. Nor is it that ghosts pass through her. We don’t know that. What is certain is that cars do not happen. If the few neighbors who want to take a walk through a 12 -kilometer asphalt block that does not lead anywhere.
Almost 20 years later they want to finish it.
Paralyzed. 2005. Alcalá de Henares (Madrid). The works of the MP-203 begin. The goal is to decongest the A-2 highway at its entrance to Madrid. The intention is to offer an alternative route to those who, at the outset, go further south. Start in the A-2 as it passes through Alcalá de Henares, destiny the A-3 as it passes through Vallecas.
Two years later, the works were abandoned. Cintra, the concessionary company with the right to exploitation for the next 30 years after disbursement of more than 100 million euros stopped the works.
From the Government of the Community of Madrid (PP), they said, first, that the efforts with the Government (then PSOE) had squandered the project. Subsequently, with the PP governing in Spain, the problem seemed to be in the relationship with Adif, on the occasion of a passage under the high speed Madrid-Barcelona. Cintra said the ball was on the roof of the regional government. All chaos can be reviewed in this article The country 2013.
The Ghost Highway. By then, the road had been paralyzed for six years, without moving even one more meter from there where Cintra, 70 million euros spent, had left it. The residents of Alcalá de Henares did not know that in 2025 they were still going to have 12.5 kilometers paved from a highway anywhere.
Because the beginning and end of the highway is the same: sand. Since the project was launched 20 years ago, the highway remains in the same state. Only the pedestrians who venture to take a walk through an environment of postpocalyptic reminiscences are passed. The MP-203 did not enjoy the global rescue that received the Spanish toll roads mediated the next decade.
Now yes? 20 years after the works began. 18 years after his abandonment. The Community of Madrid has included in its Regional Road Plan for the 2025-2032 period the intention of carrying out the MP-203 spoiled project. The information brings it 20 minuteswho point out that the initial plan goes to begin the works in 2026 and have the road ended in 2028.
To launch the project again, the Community of Madrid estimates that 58.5 million euros will be necessary. This figure would be added to the 70 million paid to Ferrovial (last responsible for the works) for compensation for not having finished the works at the time after the company made the initial investment.
The changes? The most obvious: cars will circulate. Or, at least, they will not do it illegally as those who dispute the victory in the races that are organized there. Nor will the specialists who, this time legally, star in the filming that are consent there.
In addition, the road is no longer faced as a toll road. The intention is that the link is completely free. Of course, in order to get to fruition, the final plan must be approved before the end of the year. If we get ahead, the road will end two decades after planning.
Photo | Google Maps
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