Madrid Río
Core idea
Riverfront after burying M‑30
Why it matters
Stitching city to river; new linear parks
Description
Madrid Río, carried out between 2005 and 2011, followed the burial of the M-30 motorway alongside the Manzanares river in tunnels, freeing the surface for a linear park several kilometres long designed by the MRIO consortium of architects with landscape collaborators. The project created gardens, sports facilities, new and restored bridges and reconnected the historic centre and the working-class districts of the south-west bank to a river that had been walled off by traffic for decades.
Significance
Madrid Río is one of the most cited examples of motorway burial as a tool of urban repair, demonstrating at great scale and cost how infrastructure removal can generate public space and reconnect divided districts. It is frequently invoked in international debates on highway removal and river restoration, while the debt incurred by the tunnelling has also made it a reference in discussions of the financial risks of grand municipal projects.
What shaped it
- Landscape urbanism (Waldheim) (1997-2006)
- The linear park / greenway (1878 / 2009 revival)
- The urban freeway (mid-20th c.)
Plans it influenced
- Valencia Parque Central (2011–)
- Atlanta BeltLine (2005–)
- Madrid Madrid Nuevo Norte (2019–)
- Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes Redevelopment (2013)
- Madrid Centro – Plan Especial de Calidad del Aire y Cambio Climático (Madrid 360) (2019)