The M-30 orbital motorway circles the

central districts The Central Stags, formerly known as Central Districts, are a first-class cricket team based in central New Zealand. They are the men's representative side of the Central Districts Cricket Association. They compete in the Plunket Shield fir ...

of Madrid, the capital city of Spain. It is the innermost ring road of the Spanish city, with a length of 32.5 km. Outer rings are named M-40, M-45 and M-50. Its length and the surface surrounded by the M-30 is comparable to the

Boulevard Périphérique The Boulevard Périphérique (), often called the Périph', is a controlled-access dual-carriageway ring road in Paris, France. With a few exceptions (see '' Structure and Layout''), it is situated along Paris's administrative limit. The spe ...

of Paris or the London Inner Ring Road. It has, at least, three lanes in each direction, supplemented in some parts by two or three lane auxiliary roads. It connects to the main Spanish radial national roads that start in Madrid. The M30 is the busiest Spanish road, famous for its traffic jams, and surrounded by several landmarks such as Torrespaña (one of the tallest structures in Madrid), the national headquarters of IBM, and passed under the

Vicente Calderón Stadium The Vicente Calderón Stadium ( es, Estadio Vicente Calderón ) was the home stadium of Atlético Madrid from its completion in 1966 to 2017, with a seating capacity of 54,907 and located on the banks of the Manzanares, in the Arganzuela distric ...

History

Its construction started in the 1960s and required the underground canalisation of the Abroñigal river, required to avoid flooding since the road runs through the lowest part of the city. In the 1970s the eastern section (Avenida de la Paz) was open between the junction of Manoteras (cross with the A-1, M-11 and accesses to Sanchinarro) and the Nudo Sur (South Junction), that connects to the Avenida de Andalucía (previously N-IV) and A-4. The second and western section, the Avenida del Manzanares, follows the course of the

Manzanares river The Manzanares () is a river in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, which flows from the Sierra de Guadarrama, passes through Madrid, and eventually empties into the Jarama river, which in turn is a right-bank tributary to the Tagus. In its ...

from the northwestern Puerta de Hierro junction to the junction with the eastern section. In the 1990s, the ring road was completed with the construction of the northern section, called Avenida de la Ilustración (the only section of the road with traffic lights) from the junction of Puerta de Hierro (accession to Cardenal Herrera Oria street, M40, and El Pardo road) to the junction of Manoteras with the A-1. In 2003, the highway was transferred from the

Government of Spain gl, Goberno de España eu, Espainiako Gobernua , image = , caption = Logo of the Government of Spain , headerstyle = background-color: #efefef , label1 = Role , data1 = Executive power , label2 = Established , da ...

to the

City Council of Madrid The City Council of Madrid ( es, Ayuntamiento de Madrid) is the top-tier administrative and governing body of the Madrid, the capital and biggest city of Spain. The City Council is composed by three bodies; the Mayor who leads the City Council an ...

. Mayor

Alberto Ruiz Gallardón Alberto is the Romance version of the Latinized form (''Albertus'') of Germanic ''Albert''. It is used in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The diminutive forms are ''Albertito'' in Spain or ''Albertico'' in some parts of Latin America, Albertin ...

implemented a plan called "Calle 30" (''Street 30''), converting sections of the highway in the Manzanares course into tunnels, and building an urban park ( Madrid Río) in the surface previously occupied by asphalt. From 2005 to 2008, major upgrading works took place, and now a significant portion of the southern part runs underground. They are the longest urban motorway tunnels in Europe, with sections of more than 6 km in length and 3 to 6 lanes in each direction, between the south entry of the Avenida de Portugal tunnel and the north exit of the M-30 south by-pass there are close to 10 km of continuous tunnels. The M30 tunnels run between a point roughly 700 meters north of the junction with A5 motorway and continue all the way up to the junction between M30 and A3 motorway. The total cost of the works was over 7 billion euro.

Urban, economic, environmental and cultural significance

The M-30 surrounds the inner core (the

) of Madrid:

Centro Centro may refer to: Places Brazil *Centro, Santa Maria, a neighborhood in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * Centro, Porto Alegre, a neighborhood of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * Centro (Duque de Caxias), a neighborhood of Du ...

Arganzuela Arganzuela is one of the 21 districts of the city of Madrid, Spain. Geography Position Arganzuela is located in central-southern Madrid, separated from Latina, Carabanchel and Usera by the river Manzanares. The other bordering districts are Cen ...

, Retiro, Salamanca, Chamartín, Tetuán, and

Chamberí Chamberí is a district of Madrid, Spain. It is further subdivided into six neighborhoods ( Gaztambide, Arapiles, Trafalgar, Almagro, Ríos Rosas and Vallehermoso). The district junta is headquartered at the . The current urban outline was bo ...

, as well as a small part of

Moncloa-Aravaca Moncloa-Aravaca is a district of the municipality of Madrid, Spain. It is located to the northwest of the city centre, spanning across both banks of the Manzanares. It is made up of the neighborhoods of Aravaca, Argüelles, Casa de Campo, Ciud ...

. This core is home to one quarter of the population of Madrid (about 800,000 people) and is, in average, wealthier than the rest of the city. Also, housing prices are higher inside the M-30. Popularily, the city Madrid is divided in ''dentro de la M-30'' (inside the M-30) and ''fuera de la M-30'' (outside the M-30). The M-30 itself is touted by Madrileños and media as a ''barrier'' between the rich and the poor sections of the city. Pay-per-use parking lots and parking meters in Madrid (usually called

ORA ORA or Ora may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ora'' (film), a 2011 experimental dance film * Rita Ora (born 1990), British-Albanian singer-songwriter and actress * ''Ora'' (Jovanotti album), 2011 * ''Ora'' (Rita Ora album), 2012 * "Ora" ...

in Spain, but SER in Madrid) only exist in the area within the M-30. Access by car to the inner core and the M-30 itself may be restricted in days of high air pollution.

Multimedia Gallery

Image:Hospital RyC--15.jpg, M-30 North Image:M-30.jpg, M-30 East Image:M 30 tunel.jpg, Underground stretch of the M-30 File:Vicente-Calderon-030612-1.jpg, M30 passing under the north side of the Vicente Calderón Stadium (now demolished) File:Madrid in May 2017 64 v1.jpg, Madrid Río park. Until 2007, the M-30 tracks passed by here. Now they are a tunnel below the park.

Exit list

The M-30 has the following exits:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:M-30 Transport in Madrid Transport in the Community of Madrid Ring roads in Spain