By digging an incredible 43 km of tunnels under the city and burying over 12km of the city’s highly congested M30 motorway along the Rio Manzanares, room was created for a massive green corridor and a continuity of green spaces to connect the north and south sides of the city.







Understanding scale: A comparison of the sunken M30 (top left) with the Paris Peripherique (top right), New York City’s FDR Drive (lower left), and the Boston Big Dig (lower right).
The riverfront project for Madrid is an intervention with the highest ambition of environmental improvement by the city in the twentieth century.




Supervision through design, construction, and park installation.
Burying major thoroughfares in the city allowed for space to plant 43,000 trees, 460,000 shrubs and 211,000 m2 of grassland- creating a pleasant microclimate near the waterfront.

Client
Municipality of Madrid
Partners
Burgos & Garrido Arquitectos Asociados, Porras La Casta Arquitectos and Rubio & Álvarez-Sala (during construction period these 3 Madrid-based firms formed a joint venture for the project: MRIO arquitectos)
Consultants
Cascara Bridges | FHECOR-Hugo Corres
Imagery
© Jeroen Musch, © Municipality Madrid, © Richter Spielgerate, and © West 8