[E] Spanish Autopistas and Autovías

[Coneslammer]

I just happened to stumple across it while looking at google earth, and the network they have there is pretty breath-taking, especially by European standards. A few ring roads, tollways, C+D setups, and more freeway to freeway interchanges than I can count, compared to our 2 here in Sydney Not to mention plenty of lanes on each.

Anyway, does someone have some context or explaination of what's driving this huge boom in freeways? Wikipedia doesn't have a single thing to say about Madrid's roads, believe it or not, and I can't find much else on the net, so any comments from locals or people in the know, you're welcome.

[IMG][/IMG]

I mean, jesus christ, just south-east of the city they have 9 full on interchanges covering an area that appears to be practically empty, if i'm missing something I would love to know.

Edit: Oh, nice forums here by the way, glad I found 'em.

[z0rg]

Well, you should check the size of our subway network too

[MBV]

Yes, look for in Google "Metro de madrid" and see. Its grewing 20/30 kilometers each year!
Haigways? Conexions betwing roads?...1.000.000 at last!!

[Prestonian]

Spain had very very poor infrastructure after the Franco years and had to start from scratch essentially which is why the system looks so well planned. They also had the funding available to do it in a relatively short space of time thanks to substantial contributions from the EU structural fund.

[juanpe_r]

ok.....i´ll try explain you....but my english is not....very good!!! hehe
first thing:most of red roads ares also freeways ( i mean A42, M506, M503...etc... te red ones out the city)
why so many freeways??? Madrid has around 6 million in metropolitan area (national statics center (without ilegal innmigrants....and there are thousands...)
second....spanish road network was very very radial (not know taht they are making new corridors but yeas years ago) so everybody that wanted to cross the country must pass trought madrid. I mean for example....-.portuguesse people to france......(today they´ve got more roads....but in.,..1996 not..)
Madrid is a small city (area) for 6 million.....most of people live in flats....so the density is huge....and the traffic is near collapsed.
and.....for example......mmmmm.......a lot of the biggest construction companies int he world are spanish(FCC, ACS...)....so the must do things here also

[CrazyMac]

Originally Posted by Prestonian

Spain had very very poor infrastructure after the Franco years and had to start from scratch essentially which is why the system looks so well planned. They also had the funding available to do it in a relatively short space of time thanks to substantial contributions from the EU structural fund.

Yeah, was going to say because they didnt have to pay for it.....

[Aquarius]

The population of the Community of Madrid has grown in a million in the last decade, the whole south zone will be urbanized in the next years, you can see many neighborhoods in construction.The sprawl every year is bigger .. specially in the zone west

The last year was inaugurated the new terminal of the airport, and more highways were constructed around it,also Madrid is in the center of Spain,it is a crossroads., all the regions of the center of Spain have a density of population of 25 inhabitants per sq/km (very low for Spain) except Madrid and thus it has 6 radial freeways (Autovias):

A1: Madrid-Bilbao
A2: Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona
A3: Madrid- Valencia
A4: Madrid- Sevilla
A5: Madrid - Lisboa
A6: Madrid: A coruña


The R1. R2,R4,R5 .... are six toll autopistas who started from Madrid to make less crowded the autovias

Many radial and rings = many interchanges

In addition the construction is very important in the Spanish productive system plus Madrid is one of the richest zones, plus is the capital plus euro fund


sorry by my english...

[willo]

Originally Posted by Prestonian

Spain had very very poor infrastructure after the Franco years and had to start from scratch essentially which is why the system looks so well planned. They also had the funding available to do it in a relatively short space of time thanks to substantial contributions from the EU structural fund.

not very true.in fact many of this highways were made in Franco's era. and i have to say that only some spanish regions have benn subject of them and Madrid is not between on them. all highays you see are paid by spanish goverment or by madrilenian goverment or by private companies.European Funds to Madrid are very strange


you can aplly your hypotesis to other regions but not Madrid

[torke]

Originally Posted by Prestonian

Spain had very very poor infrastructure after the Franco years and had to start from scratch essentially which is why the system looks so well planned. They also had the funding available to do it in a relatively short space of time thanks to substantial contributions from the EU structural fund.

I agree with Willo!! Madrid had many freeways built when Franco was (he died in 1975), in fact all the main ones (A-1, A-2, A-3, A-4, A-5, A-6, M-30...) although they were rufurbished after. Anyway, now we have more and more highways but the structure was already planned since years and years ago, Franco decided that Madrid was going to be the spanish Km0: he decided that all main freeways in Spain should be crossed in Madrid and he made it to come true (of course I am not making an apology of Franco but I know he built most of the dams and roads in the country as many other fucking shit of things!!!). Since Spain became a member of EU in 1986 much money came, mostly for those parts of the country with the lower gip, but Madrid is one of the most prosperous regions in the UE (GIP=27,279Euros in 2005) so it does not get much money from it. The thing is that in this area the density of population is hugh (760,40people/km2), we are more than 6 million people in 8028km2 so we can built in this small place the same roads for example the can built in the whole Catalunya (another region of Spain with same population more or less (6.506.440) but 32.114km2 size.



As your question Coneslammer, about those areas in the south/east of the city outskirsts... moslty of that parts are already built (Pau de Vallecas, Rivas-Futura...) or being built (Pau de Valdecarros, Pau de los Ahijones...) although u can not see them in Google Earth.

In the picture, south/east of Madrid outskirts (Pau de Vallecas) in June 2003:


In the picture , south/east of Madrid outskirts (Pau de Vallecas) in June 2005:


Anyway the traffic is complicated in areas without any construction because u need to pass throw them to reach other areas of the city and remember that many cars in Madrid are just travelling from any part of the Iberian Peninsula cross the city to other one.

MY ADVICE: Dont trust google earth to view Madrid, pictures are so old.

[AdamChobits]

Originally Posted by CrazyMac

Yeah, was going to say because they didnt have to pay for it.....

Don't talk about something you don't know. Incredible how some people really love to show their ignorance.

[AdamChobits]

Something to add is that most of the office areas from Madrid are in the outskirts. So, offices and indutries need to have good conections to be accesible to the workers or transportation.

[I-275westcoastfl]

Every big city needs a good highway network.

[Justme]

@Coneslammer, welcome to the forum. Hope the responses have answered your questions.

By the way, many cities in Europe have extensive freeways. The difference is, unlike the US, they don't go often into the central area, but are very common in the metro area. Pick up any map of the Netherland's road network and you will be blown away. Likewise, most German cities have very extensive autobahn networks in the metropolitan areas.

[godblessbotox]

are they still expanding it or is it stagnate like la?

[torke]

Originally Posted by godblessbotox

are they still expanding it or is it stagnate like la?

Madrid net is being expanded with new freeways and some toll motorways. They are now building the new toll motorway between Madrid and Toledo, close to A-42, they are creating express lanes in all the main freeways and they are working on the proyect for the M-60 (the fifth round ring freeway and for the R-1 (a toll motorway going north next to A-1). I am sure I forget something, maybe someone can help me.

[Obidos]

Originally Posted by torke

Madrid net is being expanded with new freeways and some toll motorways. They are now building the new toll motorway between Madrid and Toledo, close to A-42, they are creating express lanes in all the main freeways and they are working on the proyect for the M-60 (the fourth round ring freeway and for the R-2 (a toll motorway going north next to A-2). I am sure I forget something, maybe someone can help me.

Torke, R2 is already on service, they are maybe trying to build R-1 as an alternative to the A-1. Also local goverment is trying to close the ring of M-50 over the North, but there is a special protected area over there (Monte de El Pardo) and it is not clear what are they going to do. Also a part of M-501 ("road of reservoirs") will be a highway, but due to special protected area (Sierra-Mountains), it is not sure.

[torke]

Originally Posted by Obidos

Torke, R2 is already on service, they are maybe trying to build R-1 as an alternative to the A-1. Also local goverment is trying to close the ring of M-50 over the North, but there is a special protected area over there (Monte de El Pardo) and it is not clear what are they going to do. Also a part of M-501 ("road of reservoirs") will be a highway, but due to special protected area (Sierra-Mountains), it is not sure.

Sorry, I meant R-1, I dont know what the hell i was thinking in

[torke]

ABOUT MADRID

[B]Madrid is the capital of Spain in the south of E.U. and is located in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula at 667m of altitude and with over 6 million people living in an area of 7995km2 (1,2% of the country). Its GIP is 29% bigger than the E.U. GIP, with some 30.000Euros in 2005. The population of the city itself is 3.228.359 people in an area of 607 km2. The south of the metropolitan area closest to the capital is the most populated, 991.787 people living just in 6 municipalities (Mostoles, Fuenlabrada, Alcorcon, Getafe, Leganés and Parla) which formed what is called "the great south".[B]

Some net/other threads posted pics:




The Madrid Metro is one of the most extensive and fastest-growing metro networks in the world, it is now the second largest metro system in Europe, second only to London's Underground. The metropolitan area of Madrid is also served by an extensive commuter rail network called Cercanías.

Madrid's metro and cercanías network nowadays:

Madrid's metro and cercanías network in 2007:


The area is served by Barajas International Airport with a current passenger volumes range upwards of 44 million passengers per year, putting it in the top 20 busiest airports in the world. Last February the new Terminal 4 became the biggest European airport terminal and it doubled the capacity of the airport to more than 70 Millions passengers per year.

Aereal view of Barajas Airport:
[/URL]
New terminal 4:


Madrid's freeways net is great due to the huge number of vehicles registered in the area and to the ones crossing it in their transit to other iberian peninsula areas.

[torke]

Madrid's first/inner freeway round ring of its 4 ones is called M-30 and carries over 330.000 cars/day.
M-30 is 30km long and it was started to built in the late sixties.
Now a days M-30 is changing completely, is being rebuilt to improve those areas of Madrid near it, especially the west side, close to the Manzanares river, the total cost of the proyect is 3.900.000.000 euros and when finished most of the highway will be a tunnel and its capacity will be extended in 100.000 more cars/day.
The name of the project is "Madrid Calle 30" which means "Madrid 30th Street"

[torke]

In this thread we are going to post about the whole MADRID CALLE 30 project.