now you will receive it through 67 kilometers

The highway that connects Madrid with the Levant peninsula is going to undergo its most ambitious renovation in decades. In February, the Ministry of Transport gave the green light to the preliminary project for the reform and conservation of the A-3, defining what is going to be done and how much it will cost. The investment is one of the highest ever made in Spain and below these lines we tell you all the details.

What is this about? The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility approved on February 27, the preliminary project for the reform of the A-3 in Madrid, with a base tender budget of 540.8 million euros (VAT included). The affected section starts at kilometer 3.8where the highway leaves the M-30 behind, and extends until kilometer 70.7, now on the border with the province of Cuenca. There are 67 kilometers of comprehensive reform.

Why now. The A-3 is one of the main routes into and out of Madrid, and supports enormous traffic every day. Over time, the highway has accumulated significant wear and tear, and there are structures and safety systems that no longer meet current standards. The reform seeks to update this path.

What exactly is going to be done. From the Ministry they are going to carry out a large number of performances and they cover practically all the elements of the highway:

• Rehabilitation of the pavement in the main trunk, service roads, collector roads and branches, with extension of a new road surface throughout the platform.
• Reorganization of accesses and expansion of berms to improve visibility and safety.
• Rehabilitation of existing structures and pre-design of new ones, with interventions such as deck extensions or gauge adjustments.
• Complete replacement of vertical signage and repainting of road markings.
• Improvement of the drainage system and replacement of containment systems.
• Re-highlighting of the highway in certain sections.
• Installation of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS): new capacity stations, variable messaging panels, cameras and license plate reading systems to manage a new specialized public transport lane.
• Replacing old sodium vapor luminaires with LED technology.
• Relocation and adaptation of public transport stops.

There is more. In addition to the A-3, the preliminary project includes the conditioning of a 12-kilometer section of the national highway N-3, between kilometer points 29 and 40,975. Here the action involves the rehabilitation of the pavement and structures, and adaptation of the containment and signaling systems.

What lies ahead. The preliminary draft is only the first administrative step. The ad also It is found in the BOEand the final construction project must be approved before the works can be put out to tender. The Ministry also states that the actions will be carried out in sections through independent projects, which means that the work will be carried out progressively. The specific deadlines for starting work have not yet been detailed, so we have to wait until we know more information about it.

The figure in perspective. The investment of 540 million euros is in the spectrum of the highest figures in terms of reforming a highway in Spain. To put it in perspective, in new construction projects, the closest references in amount are the Jaca Variant (connection of the A-21 with the A-23 in Huesca), tendered for 153.6 million, or the project to route the SE-40 between Dos Hermanas and Coria del Río in Seville, approved for more than 688 million euros, although in that case it is about building a new highway from scratch, not reforming an existing one.

Also the Ministry itself announced in December 2023 a package of improvements in the accesses to Madrid, which grouped five projects on four highways (A-1, A-2, A-4 and A-42) for a total of 360 million euros to act on 36 kilometers. The A-3, with 540 million for 67 km, exceeds that volume of expenditure with a single reform project (although they are later divided into independent projects).

Cover image | Ministry of Transport and Google Maps

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