Madrid is taking the first steps to build a new highway that will connect the Southwest. It will be a corridor of just over 41 kilometers designed to connect nine municipalities and link two major routes, the M-503 and the M-407. The Community of Madrid has begun the administrative procedures by approving contracts for 4.2 million euros for the technical, environmental and economic studies, which opens the door for the project to be defined over the next 15 months.
The new road will create a continuous corridor that will directly benefit more than 100,000 residents. The planned route will serve the municipalities of Valdemorillo, Villanueva de la Cañada, Brunete, Sevilla la Nueva, Navalcarnero, El Álamo, Batres, Serranillos del Valle and Griñón, an expanding residential area that today depends on secondary roads, in many cases with only one lane, and detours to go from one town to another.
A 41 km highway and nine municipalities
The new highway will link up with the A-6 and the A-4 via the M-503, the M-501, the A-5 and the M-407, which will shorten routes, avoid passing through urban crossings and reduce pressure on saturated stretches in the southwest. The Community calculates that the average daily intensity will be between 10,000 and 17,000 vehicles, depending on the section.
For the time being, there are no works, only formalities: the Governing Council has authorized the contracts to draw up the technical feasibility study, the environmental impact analysis, the economic-financial study and the preliminary construction and operation project. These works, which will take 15 months, will define the exact layout, the number of junctions, the lane configuration and the financing formula, as well as the total investment required for the highway.
All this at the cost, however, of an intense future debate on the environmental and territorial impact of adding one more major highway to the map of the region.