Madrid City Council presents ‘Parque Ventas’, a project to be carried out by FCC Construcción
Madrid City Council has presented ‘Parque Ventas’, a project to be carried out by FCC Construcción together with other companies, which will create a new 16,370 m2 space over the M-30 motorway, connecting the districts of Salamanca and Ciudad Lineal for pedestrians and as a landscaped area. The 197-metre-long platform will directly link the Quinta de la Fuente del Berro park, on the Salamanca side, and the green area on the Ciudad Lineal side.
The works, which involve an investment of 70.4 million euros, will begin this coming spring and will last until the spring of 2027.
The space created over the M-30 will be connected to the margins by eight footbridges and will have pedestrianised areas, landscaped areas and recreational areas in which 591 new trees and more than 48,800 bushes will be planted. In addition, there will be more than 2,150 m2 of lawns and children's playgrounds, calisthenics equipment, a small open-air performance area with low-rise stands, two kiosks, fountains, benches and litter bins will be installed. The new space will also be equipped with energy-efficient LED lighting.
The new platform will be located some 300 metres south of the Ventas Bridge, in the vicinity of the Ramón de Aguinaga footbridge. This location has been determined as the most appropriate for several reasons. On the one hand, it avoids the demolition of the ramps that connect the M-30 with Calle de Alcalá, which would have a major impact on mobility for many months, as well as being technically complex. On the other hand, in the 300-metre stretch to the south of the bridge there are Metro facilities and a Canal de Isabel II reservoir that would make the connection of the platform unfeasible. In addition to all this, the section of the M-30 chosen runs in a trench at a lower level than the city on both sides of the infrastructure, which will facilitate the work.
Both the supporting structures and the roof slab will be made of prestressed reinforced concrete and priority has been given to the use of prefabricated elements so that their assembly on site is more agile and the impact on traffic circulating on the M-30 can be minimised. The piers that will support the platform will be founded on piles with a depth of between 16 and 17 metres. The deck, meanwhile, will be made up of prefabricated beams arranged in 32 frames transverse to the M-30 with supports at the long edges of the rectangle formed by the platform and intermediate piers placed in the median strips (dividing the main road from the service roads).
The project will not only involve the creation of the platform for the roof over the M-30, but will also include significant improvements on both sides of the road covering a further 40,300 m2. In other words, the total surface area involved will exceed 56,600 m2.
Improvements to the side of the Salamanca district
In Fuente del Berro Park, the aim is to minimise impact, so the layout and foundations of the footbridges will be determined by the location of existing trees and paths, which will retain their layout. The only work planned is to improve the paths to integrate them with the ends of the footbridges and to repair areas eroded by runoff, improving their surface.
The Calle de Ramón de Aguinaga, which currently ends at the footbridge of the same name, will be promoted as the main access to the new space from the south-west, transforming it into a single-platform road and creating new stairs that will connect directly with the current Ramón de Aguinaga footbridge over the M-30 motorway.
At the northern end of the Fuente del Berro park, the existing children's playground and dog area will be remodelled, and this will be followed by the remodelling of Calle de Alejandro González and Plaza de la América Española, which will connect Calle de Alcalá with the new space above the M-30. Alejandro González Street will be reorganised to facilitate traffic flow and in the Plaza de la América Española, the eastern part of the current ring road will be pedestrianised.
Improvements on the side of the Ciudad Lineal district
On the Ciudad Lineal side, all the open spaces between the apartment blocks and the M-30 motorway in the area around Calle de Antonio Pirala will be completely remodelled, and the interior of the park will be reorganised. The aim is to recover a residual space that is currently in disuse, connecting it at its main nodes with the new space that will cover the M-30 and, in turn, improving the cross-connecting roads with the Ventas neighbourhood.
This flank will have a new pedestrian promenade whose width will gradually expand towards the north. The area will have spaces for children, sports and for the elderly. The space currently reserved for road traffic will be integrated with the pedestrian walkway, creating a single-platform coexistence road.
The project also includes the northernmost sector of Antonio Pirala Park, which connects with Calle de Alcalá. This is a leisure space halfway between a park and a square that will be reorganised to enhance it as a meeting place.