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FCC Construcción starts work on burying the A-5 road underground
FCC Construcción has begun work on the project to bury the A-5 dual carriageway as it passes through Avenida de Extremadura in Madrid. This urban mobility project will reduce CO2 emissions in the area by more than 85%, turning Paseo de Extremadura into a great pedestrian boulevard that will connect on the surface the neighbourhoods of the Latina district of Lucero, Aluche and Las Águilas with those of Campamento and Casa de Campo, separated since 1968 by the asphalt that 80,000 vehicles have been crossing every day.
FCC Construcción, in a consortium with Ferrovial, will build the first of the two lots into which the A-5 underground works are divided, budgeted at 123 million euro. The consortium will build 1,720 metres of road, of which 1,300 metres will be underground, in a stipulated period of 25 months. The section to be built runs from Padre Piquer to Batán and includes the civil works, service and safety installations as well as the road surface. In addition, a new roundabout will be built on Avenida de los Poblados, south of the A-5. This roundabout will be necessary to redistribute mobility in the area.
The new tunnel, which will be built by excavation, will have three lanes in each direction in two bays. The lanes closest to the median on both carriageways will be designed to be used as bus-VAO lanes, equipped with variable signalling that will allow their use to be regulated according to the needs of traffic at any given moment. The flexibility of this system will allow the optimisation of the infrastructure, adapting to transport demand in a variable way.
The entire project (lots 1 and 2) will cover the A-5 and will give continuity to the pedestrianised boulevard of Avenida de Portugal, which connects with Madrid Río, as far as Avenida del Padre Piquer: a 3.2-kilometre underground section. Surface vehicles will be reduced by 90% and polluting emissions will also be reduced. In addition to recovering the space occupied by the asphalt for residents, pedestrian mobility on public transport and roads will be improved, resulting in improved road safety in the area. It will solve the problems of traffic jams in conflictive connections such as Paseo de Extremadura, Batán and Boadilla.
The third lot comprises the construction of the Paseo Verde del Suroeste, which will create new green areas for the residents of this area in the 80,000 square metre area created above the new A-5 tunnel, which is already underground. The landscaping project envisages reaching a tree coverage of around 80% and maximising the surface area of flowerbeds in cohabitation with mobility and the planned uses. The Paseo Verde will have more than 7,200 trees.
The Paseo Verde del Suroeste will incorporate renewable energy generation systems. The aim is to seek the energy sustainability of the infrastructure as a whole and optimise its resources to achieve a zero energy balance in the operating phase.