Madrid Río

Madrid Rio is a ten-kilometre-long landscape park running along the Manzanares river in southern and western Madrid, completed between 2006 and 2011. It was made possible by one of the most spectacular urban repairs in Europe: the six-lane M-30 motorway, which had bordered the river for decades, was buried in tunnels section by section, at a cost of billions of euros. On the surface, promenades, sports pitches, 17 new bridges, splash pools and playgrounds were created. The masterplan was designed by West 8 with Burgos-Garrido and Porras-La Casta. Today you can walk from the 18th-century domed Puente de Toledo past the former Atletico Madrid stadium site to the Parque Lineal and see the city, which had long ignored its river, from the water side.