North Tunnel on M-30 South Bypass Opens in MadridSince 23rd March, 2007 up to 80,000 vehicles use daily the north tunnel on the south bypass on the M-30 in Madrid, which opened to traffic at the same time as the entrance tunnel to Madrid from motorway A-3 (from Valencia). Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, the mayor of Madrid, and Esperanza Aguirre, president of the region, inaugurated the tunnel. The entry in service of these two tunnels follows the opening last 20th February of the tunnel extending the south bypass up to Vicente Calderon Stadium (read E-News Weekly 14/2007).The three new tunnel sections have a total length of 7,560 metres, and form the longest urban tunnel in Europe. The three tunnels will allow drivers to avoid the south interchange and its endless traffic jams to go from the A-3 to Vicente Calderon Stadium. The opening of the new infrastructure will provide better access to 650,000 residents from Retiro, Arganzuela, Vallecas Bridge and Usera districts. The north section of the south bypass stretches 4.2 km. It was bored by the then world's largest TBM, dubbed 'Dulcinea', while its twin nicknamed 'Tizona' built the south tunnel of the bypass. More than EUR463 million was invested, while construction of the 1.2 km tunnel to enter Madrid from the A-3 had a budget of EUR113.3 million. The tunnel between the south interchange and Vicente Calderon Stadium, opened in February, is 2.1 km and cost EUR179 million. The city of Madrid invested EUR756.3 million to design and build the whole stretch in 30 months. Vehicles driving on the south M-30 to the A-5 (motorway to Extremadura) and the A-6 (motorway to La Coruna) will not have to cross the south interchange any longer, but will take instead the bypass and then directly the underground section that begins nearby Matadero de Legazpi and ends at Marques de Monistrol, after exiting to the surface for a few hundred metres at Vicente Calderon Stadium. The tunnel will cut travel times for drivers from 30 minutes at rush hours to just four minutes, although this calculation only takes into account passage through the 4.2 km tunnel built by TBM. Anyway, the bypass is 1.5 km shorter than the old, corresponding M-30 route at the surface, which saves time, fuel and pollution. The south tunnel of the bypass, of a similar length, will be opened in a few weeks. When both in service, the twin tunnels of the south bypass will absorb around 80,000 of the 260,000 vehicles that each day travel through the south M-30, thus sparing 120,000 kilometres altogether each day. A tunnel for emergency vehicles is built under the roadway of the north and south TBM-built tunnels of the bypass. Click here.The three tunnels are equipped with 229 CCTV cameras, 412 loudspeakers, 229 fire hydrants, 63 message panels, emergency exits each 200 metres, whereof seven have direct exit to outside, and 16 cross-passages, 10 for pedestrians and six for vehicles. The ventilation systems installed in the tunnel are capable of filtering 90% of the contaminating particles emitted from exhaust pipes. Citilog supplied the automatic incident detection system for the M-30 tunnels. In total, 600 video signals will be processed in real time to inform the control centre on potential danger situations (vehicles stopped, in the wrong way or slow). Visit www.citilog.frThe new underground section, along with the reduction of traffic at the surface and the elimination of sections high prone to accidents, will increase safety avoiding 123 accidents a year. Click here, here, here, here & es/104. Visit www.munimadrid.es/ 14/07.