The A-6 bridge over the M-30 that supports Avenida del Padre Huidobro, in the Puerta de Hierro junction, will suffer partial closures from midnight this Sunday to Monday and until mid-September after the City Council of Madrid has detected structural problems, specifically a reduction in the resistance of the concrete, which has given rise to a “significant number of longitudinal cracks on the underside of the deck”, in addition to an increasingly accentuated curvature of the infrastructure, reports Europa Press.
“We have found some very significant structural damage to the Padre Huidobro bridge, the Puerta de Hierro bridge, which forces us for security reasons to make partial cuts within the structure of the A-6 as well as below the M- 30, which passes under this bridge”, explained the Works and Equipment delegate, Paloma García Romero, who stressed that they will be partial cuts.
There are nine lanes that make up the board: four entering Madrid and the same number exiting, as well as a reversible HOV Bus lane. The rehabilitation work will be undertaken in three phases, which will last three to four weeks each. They will involve the occupation of three lanes in each phase, so that traffic on the road will remain open at all times, leaving six lanes operational (two in the inbound direction, three in the outbound direction and the HOV Bus lane).
The VAO Bus will remain at all times but changing lanes. “The VAO Bus will always be running, it will not be touched, but rather it will change places depending on the phase in which the work is at,” the head of Works has clarified.
The three occupation phases provided for on the A-6 will correspond to the three lanes in the north area of ??the board, the three lanes in the central area and the three in the area. In addition, these actions will be carried out in a single phase during the entire work with the occupation of the right lane of the M-30 in the north direction and the annexed exit lane to Dehesa de la Villa, which will be effective from Thursday to Friday 7 of July.
Traffic will be maintained both in the two remaining lanes of the M-30 northbound and at the Dehesa de la Villa/A-6 exit. In the south direction of the M-30 there will be no permanent occupations. Once the occupation has ended, specific lane cuts will be carried out on the M-30 at night for final work on conditioning the board.
The City Council recommends, as far as possible, the use of public transport and also proposes alternative entry and exit itineraries, specifically the exit towards the A-6 via the Castilla highway (M-500) and M-30 exit A -6 and entrance to Madrid by M-50 south, M-40 north and south and the Castilla highway. Traffic conditions can be consulted on the municipal website, www.madrid.es.
The rehabilitation works start at midnight from Sunday, July 2 to Monday, July 3, immediately after the operation Departure of the weekend, a date that is not coincidental but rather that the Works and Equipment area, with Paloma García Romero at the helm , has chosen thinking of the least harm to citizens.
“We want to avoid the danger of the infrastructure collapsing and there may even be a collapse,” warned the delegate to justify the need for these works. “We have no other choice,” he insisted after announcing the pathology suffered by the infrastructure, “the same disease that Joaquín Costa’s Scalextric had”, who was caught “in the terminal phase” and who finally had to resort to demolition.
In this case it has been caught on time. The City Council detected moisture problems in the concrete, discovering in 2012 -the City Council received this infrastructure in 2004, when they received the M-30 from the State- that in the 64-meter walkway of the bridge, cracks had appeared and had begun to curve . Now they will work on the repair so that the infrastructure can increase its life “as long as possible”, about ten or fifteen years.
In 2015, the City Council acted partially with a waterproofing of the bridge but the cracks did not stop growing, as they registered in 2021 and 2022, together with an increasing curvature. “We are now forced to act due to ever-growing cracks (in the concrete of the deck). We are close to the terminal phase,” warned Paloma García Romero.
The affected bridge was designed in 1989 and ceded by the State to the City Council in 2014. It is 63.20 meters long and 34.34 meters wide. The structure is configured as a continuous concrete slab supported by a single pier and two abutments. Now, with the rehabilitation works, five pillars will be installed to hold the bridge, in addition to undertaking the necessary waterproofing to prevent the entry of water and thus stop the chemical reaction that is degrading the concrete.
Some sensors are also going to be incorporated so that they inform the technicians at all times of the evolution of the damage in order to confirm if with the actions this summer they have managed to “cut the disease forever”. What is pursued from the Consistory is that security “be permanent for all”.
The occupations and phases of the works, which have a budget of 1.5 million euros, have been agreed upon by the City Council’s Works and Mobility services, the General Directorate of Traffic and the State Road Demarcation in Madrid. The 1.5 million are financed with credit modifications given the situation of budget extension while the works will be undertaken in two work shifts, morning and night, avoiding the afternoon, as stipulated by labor regulations in the face of high temperatures.
“We believe that it is the most intelligent action and we apologize to the citizens, but safety is paramount for this Madrid City Council. The action is essential and doing it this summer will cause the least possible damage because there are much fewer drivers using this road at this time. of the year”, has transferred García Romero.
The City Council has reported the density of traffic that passes through that point in Madrid, at a rate of some 4,000 vehicles in the morning rush hour in a month of July 2019, that is, with data prior to the pandemic, and 4,300 at peak departure time on Fridays.