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 firs ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, the capital city of

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. 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 sp ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

or the

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

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 Torrespaña (literally "Spain Tower") is a steel-and-concrete television tower located in Madrid, Spain. National terrestrial television channels RTVE, Telecinco and Antena 3, as well as the autonomous channel Telemadrid, along with a few radio ...

(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 distr ...

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

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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 ...

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

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 An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to r ...

( 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 The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

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 Duq ...

, Arganzuela, Retiro,

Salamanca Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Herit ...

, Chamartín, Tetuán, and Chamberí, 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 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