Madrid places the last piece of the park that will fly over the M-30

The work on Parque Ventas in Madrid meets its deadlines and, in fact, is already has finished placing the 96 beams that will serve as support for the structural platform of the new space on the M-30. The idea is that this same space serves as a union for the districts of Salamanca and Ciudad Lineal, which have been separated for decades by the same highway. Meeting deadlines. Ten months after the start of work, the supporting structure is now complete. The delegate of the Works and Equipment Area of ​​the Madrid City Council, Paloma García Romero, has confirmed that, in addition to having placed the last beam, the roof development work is already underway and the first of the eight walkways that will give access to the park have been connected. The schedule remains unchanged and the opening is scheduled for spring 2027. Objective and figures. Parque Ventas has a platform 197 meters long and 16,370 m² in surface. This will fly over the 16 lanes of the M-30, the point with the highest traffic density in Spain, which supports about 150,000 vehicles per day in each direction. Its objective is to connect the neighborhoods of Salamanca and Ciudad Lineal, which have been separated by the same highway for decades. How it is built. The structure rests on piles founded between 16 and 17 meters deep. The 96 prefabricated prestressed reinforced concrete beams have been arranged in 32 transverse frames to the highway, supported on the edges of the platform and on piles located in the medians that separate the main lanes from the auxiliary ones. On those beams a concrete slab is now being laid 30 centimeters thick. The complete deck reaches 2.7 meters deep, with a middle layer of soil of 1.5 meters to allow for landscaping. Both the concrete and the prefabrication techniques have been chosen, according to the City Council, so that it affects traffic as little as possible during the works. Logistical challenge. Placing these pieces takes a lot of effort. According to counted A few weeks ago, Javier Nájera, head of the City Council’s structures service, told El Mundo that working during the day on that stretch could have generated delays of up to 14 hours. For this reason, the most critical operations were concentrated in summer, when traffic fell by 40%, and were carried out at night with cranes weighing more than 500 tons that, before six in the morning, had to be completely removed. The beams, weighing up to 200 tons and 40 meters in length, arrived from Rivas Vaciamadrid and Seville, since according to Nájera Manufacturing only from Madrid would be unfeasible for the pace they need. What will there be when it opens? The future park will include pedestrian areas, gardens with 591 trees and more than 48,800 bushes, more than 2,150 m² of meadows, children’s games, calisthenics equipment, a small grandstand for outdoor performances, two kiosks, fountains and street furniture. The eight walkways will connect the platform with both banks of the M-30, creating a green corridor between the Quinta de la Fuente del Berro park and the green area of ​​Ciudad Lineal. The other side of the project. The works progress, but not without disturbances. And the neighborhood platform AfectadosM30 has publicly denounced the impact of the nighttime operations on the more than 50,000 people who live in the surrounding neighborhoods. The platform also He contacted Xataka and questioned some aspects such as the discovery of underground water during the excavation, which forced the work to be readapted, or the final cost of the work. The City Council estimates the investment at 80 million euros, although the neighborhood platform elevates that figure up to 94.9 million if the modifications introduced after the initial award are included. What remains to be done. With the structure completed, the work now focuses on the concrete slab on the beams and the development of the roof. Next will come the waterproofing, the drainage system, the soil layer and, finally, the landscaping. Cover image | Google Maps and Madrid City Council In Xataka | The great artery between Madrid and Valencia had been awaiting renovation for years: 500 million euros will end the wait

convert your M-30 to cycle and walk

He Boulevard Periphérique It is a sort of Parisian M-30. The French city has, like Madrid, a ring road with a length of 35 kilometers. It was designed in 1958 to unclog traffic in the city center with a clear objective: it was faster to go around the city center at a sustained speed than to pass through the center of it. Both projects have grown with parallel lives. The Parisian highway was not completed until well into the 1970s and Madrid began construction of its own in that same decade. But, over time, they have experienced the same problems. Quickly, the highway was absorbed by the city itselfcreating a kind of urban highway. This has caused a series of issues. The first is pollution, both from vehicle emissions and the noise generated. But also social problems with architectural walls that make pedestrian or bicycle passage difficult and that break the internal cohesion of the city. Madrid has solved part of this problem with Madrid Ríoburying a part of it and, now, covering the Sales step. In Paris they have encountered a similar situation. The Boulevard Périphéric was built on the remains of the old Thiers wall, a defensive fortification completed in 1844 that at the beginning of the 20th century was totally useless and made it difficult for those who lived outside the wall to enter the city. What they didn’t imagine is that They were about to create a new wall. The city has been debating for years what to do with this bypass. Measures have already been taken to try to reduce traffic. The latest proposal involves converting it into a real boulevard, with its trees, its pedestrian crossings and its bike lanes. A new mayor’s office, an old project During Anne Hidalgo’s mayoralty, the city has taken various measures to reduce traffic in the city center, calm the passage of vehicles and penalize those who reach the heart of Paris by car. Thus, a project has been implemented to multiply the number of bike lanes, reduce the trips that pass through the interior of the city and punish those who arrive with an SUV to the Eiffel Tower itself. Hidalgo has taken over from Emmanuel Grégoire, who has managed to maintain control of the city in the hands of the socialists. And now a new melon opens: What to do with the Parisian M-30? Under Hidalgo’s mandate, the highway had already taken the first steps toward becoming a true boulevard. So, speed has been reduced to 50 km/h but the traffic jam is so serious that most drivers said they couldn’t notice the difference. But the intention of the new Government is to go further. The new mayor has not hidden At no time does he want to go deeper into the path designed by Hidalgo, reducing the volume of vehicles circulating through the city. And, above all, converting the current ring road into an urban boulevard. That is: transform the road into a road limited to 30 km/h, create a bicycle lane that runs along the entire length and leave space for pedestrians. It is a project for which Parisian environmental parties are also betting which, in addition, support the creation of traffic-signalized zebra crossings, instead of raising pedestrian crossings with bridges. This “changes everything because the road is a circular highway, and from the moment it is broken (the traffic lights are installed), it is no longer the same model,” their representatives point out. Reconverting the image of Boulevard Périphéric is an old ambition of the environmentalist and socialist parties since they have been talking for more than a decade about the chaotic traffic that is experienced every day in Paris but also about the social gap that exists between those who live inside and outside it. Already in 2015, Guardian dedicated an article to the problems generated by this urban highway. The intention of the new Government team is to have the project completed before the end of its mandate. That is to say, in the first years of the next decade, Paris has changed the morphology of this space completely. However, since The Figaro They warn that bureaucracy can play against them and that everything would get stuck if the police force issues an unfavorable opinion on the measure. Photo | Romain DC on Wikimedia and Johan Mouchet In Xataka | The cities with the worst rush hour in the world, explained in these graphs

There is an extensive system to avoid being cut off in the 48 km underground of the M-30. It’s time to renew it

Madrid City Council will completely renew the radio communications network of the M-30 tunnels, a system that has been in operation for almost two decades and is vital for coordinating emergency services and keeping drivers informed underground. The tender for the project starts today, Wednesday, with a budget of 4.8 million euros. Why you need a renovation. The 48 kilometers of M-30 tunnels register 488 million users a year, according to advance from The World. The current radio communication system is practically the same with which these underground galleries were inaugurated almost 20 years ago. Like any technology, requires updates to continue providing service and guarantee quick responses to any incident. What systems maintain communication. Just like inform In the middle, the infrastructure has two differentiated networks that allow coordination between security forces. The TETRAPOL system covers the National Police and Civil Guard, while the TETRA connects the Municipal Police, Firefighters and SAMUR. Furthermore, according to collect El Mundo, these systems guarantee the operation of analog emergency channels, Madrid Calle 30 communications and commercial FM stations. All this works thanks to two radiating cables installed on the roof of the tunnels: one exclusively for emergency services and another for the rest of the transmissions. “What makes it possible for this system to respond are radio communications. When there is an incident, the emergency services and the Police have an effective possibility of coordinating between themselves,” explains Antonio Jesús Tocino, managing director of Madrid Calle 30, to El Mundo. When will the works start and what improvements will they bring?. As well as inform In the middle, the work will begin in spring 2026 and will continue for 13 months, until April 2027. The intervention will be carried out in control centers, technical rooms and the more than 200 emergency exits, without affecting traffic except for specific outages to renew amplifiers. Among the notable developments is the increase in FM stations, which now number 48 of the current 12. This will expand the ability of the M-30 Radio system to inform drivers of safety recommendations in the event of an emergency. “We have gone looking for the most modern thing on the market,” assures Bacon. A broader technology plan. This renovation is part of a comprehensive modernization of the facilities that has already mobilized 34 million euros. Recent improvements include bluetooth beacons that allow maintaining the GPS signal inside the tunnels, in addition to a project for centralized management of the control center financed with Next Generation European funds. Cover image | Google Maps In Xataka | 171 million euros later, Metro de Madrid wants to reopen line 7B. The big question is whether the tenth time will be the charm.

The M-30 tunnels are an absolute nightmare for your mobile GPS. Madrid wants to fix it using bluetooth

If you have ever crossed the tunnels of the M-30it is more than likely that you have run out of coverage at some point. It is a more serious problem than it might seem, since the direct translation of not being clear what the correct exit ends up generating less fluidity and traffic safety. The Madrid City Council is aware of the problemand has announced the installation of a system that will allow GPS navigation systems, such as Google or Waze, to work properly within these areas. The problem. The M30 tunnels are especially extensive and thick, a terrible combination for the signal of the GPS satellites I can end up going through them. It is more than usual to lose connection when we are inside and, taking into account the importance of real -time calculations for current GPS systems, this ends up translating into a insured malfunction. The solution. From this Monday, the Madrid City Council will begin the installation of a Bluetooth electronic beacon system in order to allow guided navigation while we circulate through these tunnels. “The initiative is based on the implementation of location beacons with the objective of resolving the lack of the inviability of GPS navigation inside the tunnels as a result of the lack of visibility of satellites that allow obtaining a precise and continuous positioning through triangulation techniques.” The City Council itself admits that it is unfeasible to use GPS systems inside the tunnel. So in the absence of GPS, Bluetooth. How will it work. Madrid will locate different Bluetooth beacons inside the tunnels, with distances of 20 to 40 meters between each of them. They will be located on the sides of the tunnel by specific supports. These beacons will issue an identification signal to their own position, something that browsers can use to determine where we are. Because yes, although we are accustomed to using GPS signal, navigation apps can use Bluetooth when there is no coverage. Does not work by default. The problem of this measure is that Google Maps, the most used maps app in Spain, does not allow the default Bluetooth to use. It is necessary to navigate to the Android settings, go to “navigation”, and activate the Bluetooth beacons. In iOS the option is not available, although it is enough to activate the location functions so that it can work. Image | Xataka and Madrid City Council In Xataka | GPS locator purchase guide: tips and recommendations to succeed and seven models from 30 euros

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