Since the city council had to demolish the old San Pol de Mar Bridge, which pedestrians have crossed since the 1980s, residents of Casa de Campo and Colonia de Manzanares have found themselves divided once again. … Along M-30. Only “a few”, say passers-by in the area, know what alternative route is available to them. It is nothing but the tunnel that was intended exclusively for the passage of cars, and then ended up being closed to traffic – except in exceptional cases such as police or fire trucks – for environmental reasons. In this way, for just one year, pedestrians can cross the road within minutes… despite “fear”, in a hurry and run.
Aware of the state of this infrastructure, the darkness, the graffiti, the smell of urine or cobwebs that accompany the walk, the Works and Equipment District, headed by Paloma García, begins work this November to adapt the path that neighbors like Karina cross every week. This middle-aged woman always does so in the company of the same friends with whom she crossed the footpath to Casa de Campo. “We passed quickly, because you enter a place where someone can wait for you and no one sees you,” he points with his index finger at the curve of the tunnel to which barely a ray of light reaches. “This is the horror corridor,” Karina describes. Similar words to those used by Mercedes, 65, who describes the walk through nature as “beautiful” and the tunnel to get there as “terrible”.
On the other side of the tunnel, the experience is the same. A couple from Alto de Extremadura walking briskly. They usually repeat the same route four or five times a month, but always together and give priority to daylight hours. At least Anna, 65, does not “dare” to cross this road alone: “At night it gives respect,” she admits. Therefore, all these pedestrians welcome the idea of lighting and cleaning the tunnel and removing the current and temporary fence that separates pedestrians from the exceptional traffic of cars.
Holder Holder Holder Holder Holder
New pedestrian access
From Paseo del
Commander Fortea
Access to M-30
(north) by
tunnel
fountain: Madrid City Council /ABC
New access site
New pedestrian access
From Paseo del
Commander Fortea
Access to M-30
(north) by
tunnel
bridge
Queen Victoria
fountain: Madrid City Council /ABC
According to what the Works and Equipment District told ABC, the work will begin next November and extend until the end of next year, so that residents can open the pedestrian crossing in 2027. The tunnel is currently 70 meters long and 5.20 meters wide, and has two entrances and a curved shape. The walls are made of brick and the roof is made of prefabricated beams. The work, with a budget of 1.3 million euros, solves both the aesthetics and air conditioning as well as the access to the tunnel, maintaining its size anyway, although with a single platform, and adding a new entrance.
In this way, residents will have three ways to access the tunnel: two from Colonia de Manzanares and one from Casa de Campo. In fact, the two existing entrances, one from Plaza de las Moreras and the other parallel to the M-30 near Dr. Casal, have been preserved and another from Comandante Fortea has been added. According to the same municipal sources, this new entrance is located in an urban area “where mixed-use buildings prevail, exceeding the 2.5-meter level difference between the two roads.”
The project pays particular attention to both the new access regulations, which comply with slopes without excessive slopes, as well as function: the routes will be as short as possible “with the aim of minimizing the length of stay in the tunnel and designing the itinerary in a way that avoids ups and downs of the roads, searching for a more flexible and efficient route”, points out Cibeles.
On the other hand, the tunnel transforms from two lanes, one for pedestrians and the other for vehicles allowed to enter, into one common platform. So that pedestrians have more space to cross the crossing and do not move away from it except when a car enters, exceptionally, “in accordance with the organization of the municipal police.”
Aesthetically, the tunnel has been updated. Hence, leave the bricks behind and welcome smooth, shiny finishes, metals and tiles. Entrances and the length and width of the lobby will be illuminated, with lights built into the ceiling, and can be drawn from the photographs provided by the business area to entertain what the work will look like once it is completed.
Furthermore, the Madrid City Council highlights that the entire design adapts to the environment classified as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), so it is “environmentally friendly” and has the approval of the Local Historical Heritage Committee.
With all these changes, Karina, Mercedes or Anna will say goodbye to the “Tunnel of Horror” within a year. “Any improvement in the city should be welcomed, but it should also be designed so as not to have a significant impact on the neighbours,” warns Carina, who anticipates the inconvenience that the new access works from Colonia de Manzanares, with a direct connection from the Comandante Fortea corridor, might cause. Likewise, these women agree to suggest that the council install surveillance cameras in the new building to avoid graffiti or unsafe situations in the tunnel.
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