Madrid Nuevo Norte, the most relevant urban regeneration project in Europe, has been launched. The first infrastructure works of the project have already started with the foundation and support works for the covering of the rail yard located in the southern area of ​​the Madrid-Chamartín-Clara Campoamor station.

After more than 28 years immersed in its planning phase and after obtaining final approval in July 2020, Madrid Nuevo Norte faces a new and definitive milestone by starting its first urbanization works, whose start has been made official today in an act chaired by the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, and which was attended by Paloma Martín, Minister of the Environment, Housing and Agriculture of the Community of Madrid; the president of Adif and Adif AV, María Luisa Domínguez; and the president of Crea Madrid Nuevo Norte, Álvaro Aresti, who have discovered a plaque that records this historic event.

Raquel Sánchez, Minister for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, highlighted the importance of the event as Madrid Nuevo Norte is “the most important urban regeneration project in Europe, an urban project on a par with a European capital, a large project in size and in investment, but also in meaning because it involves a commitment to a specific urban development: for a city model and for a mobility model. Because this Government, as we are demonstrating with the policies that we have been promoting, has an ambitious vision of mobility and a firm commitment to quality public transport.

“This project -she has added ella- is based on a dense and compact city model that encourages urban life. It was born from the total renovation of the Chamartín station, from which a new hyper-connected public transport network is structured. And it has been designed to give prominence to people and to be traveled comfortably on foot or by bicycle”.

For her part, the Minister for the Environment, Housing and Agriculture highlighted that “the Community of Madrid is already planning to invest 39 million euros to provide Madrid Nuevo Norte with two public schools and an institute, which will begin construction in 2025 and they will add 3,200 seats”. In addition, it has influenced the contributions of two large public companies from the Community of Madrid, Metro and Canal de Isabel II, which are going to develop some of the most important backbone infrastructures of Madrid Nuevo Norte, and has highlighted that “Canal de Isabel II between 2024 and 2027, it will act on six hydraulic installations and 12 kilometers of pipelines, with an investment of 80 million euros, and Metro de Madrid will build three new stations with an investment of 290 million euros”.

Álvaro Aresti, president of Crea Madrid Nuevo Norte, has defined the start-up works as “the best example of the transformative power of Madrid Nuevo Norte, which will be capable of converting the space currently occupied by this railway infrastructure into a place of destination and in a space for meeting and enjoying people. And all this, without interfering with its operational capacity or with the transcendental service that the railway offers citizens”.

Coordinated works to minimize the impact on the railway service

These first works consist of the construction of the first foundation piles and concrete piers that will form part of the structure covering the rail yard south of the Chamartín-Clara Campoamor station, on whose surface the southern part of the great Central Park of Madrid Nuevo Norte.

This is a preview of the first urbanization works that affect the two areas of Madrid Nuevo Norte located to the south of the M-30: the APR 05.10 Chamartín Station and the APE 05.31 Chamartín Business Center. An advance whose objective has been to take advantage of the remodeling and expansion work carried out by Adif at the station, so that both works are coordinated, thus minimizing any possible impact on the rail service.

In total, 212,000 square meters of track yards will be covered (34,900 m2 in the south and 177,015 m2 in the north), for which it will be necessary to build a total of 2,407 foundation piles (vertical structures that serve as foundations and placed below the surface) and 1,132 piers (vertical structures that go above the surface and on which the beams that will make up the slab rest).

As a result of the start of these first works, 86 piles of the 312 that will go to the south head, and 83 piles of the 214 planned in this same area, have already been installed.

The complexity of the action has required the total coordination of the parties for the adaptation of the works, as it affects key infrastructures for mobility both at the local and state level, in one example more of the public-private partnership that identifies the entire Madrid Nuevo Norte project.