The scene repeats itself every morning: honking horns, impossible detours, sharp curves, yellow traffic lights, and a line of cars moving in fits and starts along the old Paseo de Extremadura. But that nightmare finally has an end in sight. The A-5 tunnel, the construction project that has been testing the patience of thousands of drivers and residents of Campamento, Lucero, and Batán for over two years, is entering its final stretch: the City Council expects to complete the tunnel this spring and open it to traffic before the end of the year.
The A-5 underground project is one of the flagship projects of Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida’s term. A 5.1-kilometer tunnel will bury the highway between Avenida de Portugal and Batán, freeing up more than 80,000 square meters of surface area that will become the future Paseo Verde del Suroeste. Up to 80,000 vehicles a day —which currently travel above ground through southwest Madrid on their way to the city center—will now travel underground through this tunnel.
The project is progressing through major technical milestones. In January and February, several “breakthroughs” took place—the operations that connect two tunnels excavated from opposite ends. First, 700 linear meters of tunnel were joined near Olivillo Street; then, another 1,300 meters near the Batán interchange, by breaking through the earthen wall that separated two sections of 800 and 500 meters. In total, City Hall reports that nearly 2 kilometers have been excavated and more than 80% of the roof slab has been completed, with over 600 workers and up to eight tunnel boring machines deployed along the route.
The key date: late 2026
The question everyone asks themselves in the car is always the same: “When will this be over?” The official response, repeated by the mayor and by delegate Borja Carabante, is that the deadlines remain on track. The tunnel structure (excavation and heavy civil engineering) is scheduled to be completed between late April and early May 2026.
From there, work will begin on the lining, ventilation, emergency exits, safety systems, cameras, signage, and connections to the M-30, which will take several months. The plan is for cars to begin traveling through the underpass by the end of 2026, around November, barring any technical or weather-related setbacks.
What will happen when the tunnel opens
The promise underpinning all this effort is monumental: once traffic moves down into the tunnel, the space currently occupied by the A-5 at ground level will be transformed into a large pedestrian and bicycle boulevard stretching several kilometers, featuring trees, recreational areas, bike lanes, and cross-connections between neighborhoods that are currently separated by a highway. The City Council has announced that the urban development works for the Paseo Verde del Suroeste will go out to bid this month and will be carried out in parallel with the completion of the underground work.
The idea is for Lucero, Batán, Campamento, and the rest of the neighborhoods in Latina and the area surrounding the A-5 to gain a “Madrid Río 2.0” in the southwest: a green corridor that will heal the urban divide once caused by Paseo de Extremadura as a highway leading into the city.