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Madrid covers the M-30 in Ventas and creates a park with 960 trees and two bears
An enormous wooden bear, connected to a tower by ropes and nets and accompanied by a bear cub that children will be able to enter, will be one of the most recognisable features of the future Parque Ventas. Madrid has just revealed the design of this new children's area while work to cover the M-30 between Salamanca and Ciudad Lineal has already exceeded 70% completion.
The play equipment will nod to the Bear and the Strawberry Tree and will be designed for children aged between 3 and 12. The main feature will include a tower with climbing nets and a 4.8-metre-high tube slide. Beside it, there will be an accessible platform with a ramp and another 1.3-metre slide to make it easier for children with different abilities to use.
The installation will have two figures made of accoya wood. The mother bear will be connected to the tower by a bridge and will have rope routes and vertical nets. The bear cub will serve as a small playhouse inside and have climbing holds on the outside. The ensemble will be completed with climbable posts and 13 stumps intended for balance exercises.
All of this will be installed on a new 197-metre-long platform that will cover the M-30 in Ventas. The park will occupy 16,370 square metres directly above the road and will make it possible to walk between Sancho Dávila park, in the Salamanca district, and the green areas of Ciudad Lineal without encountering the barrier that the ring road has until now represented.
The works have already entered a much more visible phase from the surface. Earth filling has reached 80%, and kerbs and benches are being installed and the sewerage, electricity, water, irrigation and communications networks are being built. Of the eight planned pedestrian footbridges, the four on the Salamanca side are already connected to the new platform; work is now concentrated on the four in Ciudad Lineal and on the cycle route.
The new space will not be solely a children's area. The project includes 960 trees, more than 48,800 shrubs and around 2,150 square metres of lawns, as well as calisthenics facilities, a small performance space, two kiosks, fountains and rest areas.
The transformation will also extend beyond the cover itself. In Salamanca, the main works on the edges are virtually complete and the new fountain in plaza de la América Española has already been built. Work will also take place at the Fuente del Berro end, while on the other side of the M-30 the reorganisation of Antonio Pirala park continues, where there will be new spaces for children, sport and older people.
Overall, the project covers more than 56,600 square metres and has an investment of €78.9 million. The City Council is maintaining spring 2027 as the target for completing the works.
Cars will continue to travel along the M-30 beneath the new cover, but from above the landscape will be completely different: where road infrastructure dominates today, a green connection between two districts will emerge, with paths, vegetation and a play area whose large bear aspires to become the most recognisable image of the new park.