Spain's Highways

[kernals12]

Spain, a country of 48 million people, has more miles of controlled access highway than Germany, which has 83 million people. They are able to build highways, and railroads and public transit lines, at a crazy low cost.

Here are some of them
The M-30 is Madrid's innermost beltway. The eastern part of it is divided into local and express lanes and is quite wide

The western part is a mere 8 lanes, but was put into a tunnel 15 years ago.


The B-20 and B-10 make up Barcelona's beltway. They were built ahead of the 1992 Olympics



The A-8 snakes its way through the Basque city of Bilbao



The A-7 serves Spain's Southeast coast, from Valencia to the Strait of Gibraltar.

[Max Rockatansky]

Your photos?  If not, got a link to the source?

[kernals12]

Your photos?  If not, got a link to the source?

Not mine. And do I really need a link to the source?

[Max Rockatansky]

Your photos?  If not, got a link to the source?

Not mine. And do I really need a link to the source?

I would think so.  Comes off as though you are trying the ole Steamed Hams approach with someone else's photos.  Off forum in groups I manage not citing is a source is something I don't tolerate.

[kernals12]

Your photos?  If not, got a link to the source?

Not mine. And do I really need a link to the source?

I would think so.  Comes off as though you are trying the ole Steamed Hams approach with someone else's photos.  Off forum in groups I manage not citing is a source is something I don't tolerate.

Fine:
https://www.emesa-m30.com/why-is-it-called-m-30/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:M_30_tunel.jpg

https://www.elperiodico.com/es/barcelona/20240510/trafico-transporte-publico-barcelona-hoy-102178380

https://barakaldodigital.blogspot.com/2024/01/diputacion-invertira-119-millones-de.html

https://www.malagacar.com/blog/travel-tips/mediterranean-motorway-malaga-a-7-versus-ap-7/

[Max Rockatansky]

Thank you.

Just so you are aware, a lot of us who manage road pages often have photos and our research taken without credit.  It used to be random people doing it but the problem has worsened with the advent of AI road pages.  I'm sure that you wouldn't appreciate it if someone ripped your road photos and didn't cite you as a source.

[Chris]

Spain was relatively late with highway construction. The country was severely affected by the Civil War, it was an economic autarky in the 1950s and had a very low standard road network into the 1960s.

A few toll roads were built between the late 1960s and mid-1970s, but the programme stalled after Franco died and Spain had more important things to deal with. Spain transitioned from being one of the most centralized countries in Europe, to become one of the most decentralized.

Large-scale autovía construction did not start until the mid-1980s, when the first generation of autovías were built, this accelerated particularly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when thousands of kilometers of new autovía were built in a short period of time.

Initial autovía construction focused on the radial routes of Madrid, by expanding the N-I to N-VI to four lane, controlled-access highways, though many had substandard geometry and even sporadical driveway access.

The political climate in Spain has long been favorable for road construction. Another factor is the Spanish geography, Madrid is the central city, but across the country are sizeable provincial capitals. This meant that Spain needs a much larger network of motorways to connect all cities than Italy or the UK.

The low construction cost (around € 3 million per kilometer in the early 2000s and € 7 - 9 million per kilometer in the 2010s) meant that Spain was able to afford to construct the largest motorway network in Europe, it overtook Germany and France.

[kernals12]

Spain was relatively late with highway construction. The country was severely affected by the Civil War, it was an economic autarky in the 1950s and had a very low standard road network into the 1960s.

A few toll roads were built between the late 1960s and mid-1970s, but the programme stalled after Franco died and Spain had more important things to deal with. Spain transitioned from being one of the most centralized countries in Europe, to become one of the most decentralized.

Large-scale autovía construction did not start until the mid-1980s, when the first generation of autovías were built, this accelerated particularly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when thousands of kilometers of new autovía were built in a short period of time.

Initial autovía construction focused on the radial routes of Madrid, by expanding the N-I to N-VI to four lane, controlled-access highways, though many had substandard geometry and even sporadical driveway access.

The political climate in Spain has long been favorable for road construction. Another factor is the Spanish geography, Madrid is the central city, but across the country are sizeable provincial capitals. This meant that Spain needs a much larger network of motorways to connect all cities than Italy or the UK.

The low construction cost (around € 3 million per kilometer in the early 2000s and € 7 - 9 million per kilometer in the 2010s) meant that Spain was able to afford to construct the largest motorway network in Europe, it overtook Germany and France.

Does anyone know how they build them so cheap?

[Chris]

Land is cheap in most of Spain. Spain is pretty sparsely populated outside of the cities. And agricultural land is of low value, in particular on the Meseta.

However that doesn't explain everything, the construct cost is also lower than almost anywhere else in Europe, including countries such as Poland or Romania. I don't know why that is. Spanish roads are not rudimentary, they have a lot of concrete ditches, large amounts of traffic signs, guardrails, etc. They don't save money on those items.

Spain has a huge construction sector. They have giants like Ferrovial, Acciona, ACS and Sacyr. They are also active overseas, both in Europe and the Americas.

Spanish road construction has taken a significant downturn over the past 15 years. The country was hit hard by the financial crisis and in 2010 they canceled nearly all construction contracts to avoid a spiraling budget deficit.

Ever since 2010, the amount of money allocated for road construction has been very low, usually in the order of € 2 - 3 billion per year to maintain and expand a 26,000 kilometer road network. Spain has been spending more on rail than roads since the early 2000s. Even during the peak of the motorway construction boom, Spain was already spending more on rail, and high-speed rail in particular. The conventional rail network of Spain is actually quite poorly serviced.

[ElishaGOtis]

Speed limits of 150km/h are now present along AP-7 in certain sections with a VSL and Average Speed Cameras. I believe this would be the first location in Europe outside of Germany's unlimited sections with a speed limit this high.

https://sgmlegalspain.com/spains-150-km-h-autopista-trials/#:~:text=Drivers%20on%20the%20AP%2D7,of%20this%20kind%20in%20Spain

[kphoger]

I believe this would be the first location in Europe outside of Germany's unlimited sections with a speed limit this high.

I'm not aware of any country that posts any speed limit between 140 km/h and 160 km/h, and 160 km/h is not in Europe.

with a VSL and Average Speed Cameras

Too bad the cameras aren't above average.

[ElishaGOtis]

I believe this would be the first location in Europe outside of Germany's unlimited sections with a speed limit this high.

I'm not aware of any country that posts any speed limit between 140 km/h and 160 km/h, and 160 km/h is not in Europe.

with a VSL and Average Speed Cameras

Too bad the cameras aren't above average.

Italy and the Czech Republic both have a program to allow 150km/h motorway sections with below-average speed cameras    , but none are implemented so far.

I'm surprised that Germany tends to not post anything above 130 outside of unlimited (that I'm aware of), because I'd half-expect them to consider something like this.

[vdeane]

I've heard of average speed cameras, but what are below average speed cameras?

[kphoger]

I've heard of average speed cameras, but what are below average speed cameras?

They're not quite as good as the average ones.

Agencies with the big bucks to spend usually splurge on above average speed cameras.

[english si]

Spain, a country of 48 million people, has more miles of controlled access highway than Germany, which has 83 million people. They are able to build highways, and railroads and public transit lines, at a crazy low cost.

And with German (et al) money, via several EU programmes...

Another factor is the Spanish geography, Madrid is the central city, but across the country are sizeable provincial capitals. This meant that Spain needs a much larger network of motorways to connect all cities than Italy or the UK.

It is bigger and more spread out than those two countries. Italy and the UK are very linear too so one route can link many major cities (both the UK and Italy could link most cities with a Y shape and a link between the fork - as seen more clearly in their HSR networks/plans but is there in the motorway network), whereas Spain is much more two dimensional and you are lucky to get more than three major cities on one route.

But at the same time, Spain has many duplicating Autovias where a free expressway is built next to the toll (for the US audience, perhaps the most similar thing is the two freeways across northern Indiana - one a toll route, one a free route. Or the NJTP vs I-295. Or FLTP vs I-95). Spain may have started late, but unlike Italy and the UK, it has never had a period of hostility to the idea of building high quality roads, and the small network until the 80s was due to lack of money, not lack of will.

Spain's motorway construction boom until the mid-10s (schemes in the pipeline were finishing) and it's large network was a mix of

• geography of scattered dense cities and a lot of empty land between them requiring lots of mileage
• economies of scale (having a big pipeline of schemes allowing skills to be used efficiently), low land costs, etc meaning they got costs right down meaning lots could be built
• having a lot of EU money coming in (see also airports that haven't opened) to build up the infrastructure making it even cheaper for the Spanish taxpayer
• using tolls for long distance routes, but then deciding to upgrade large portions of the free route to motorway as well (as either there's the local traffic as you are by a city, or its incredibly cheap as no one is there) meaning lots of duplication
• and, above all, a desire to build roads. Yes they built high speed rail, metro, trams, etc as well. But they weren't concerned about anti-car rhetoric as a country (even for urban projects), unlike NW European countries, meaning stuff got built without fuss

[kernals12]

and, above all, a desire to build roads. Yes they built high speed rail, metro, trams, etc as well. But they weren't concerned about anti-car rhetoric as a country (even for urban projects), unlike NW European countries, meaning stuff got built without fuss

This goes with one thing I've mentioned, that there's paradoxically less concern about climate change the closer you get to the equator

Although, there have been some controversies. Back in the 60s, when they rerouted the Turia river away from Valencia, the plan was to build a highway in the old riverbed. The locals managed to block that (and the recent floods illustrate that was probably a smart move).

[english si]

This goes with one thing I've mentioned, that there's paradoxically less concern about climate change the closer you get to the equator

Madrid is the same latitude as NYC. We're looking at somewhere pretty far north.

[kernals12]

Spain has truly achieved transportation abundance. Imagine what the rest of the world would look like if highways could be built so cheaply

[Chris]

Spain's rail system is more limited than you'd think based on high-speed rail or subway length statistics. They spent almost all of their funding for public transport on either urban rail systems (which are good) or the high-speed rail system.

However the conventional rail system (intercity &  regional) trains is pretty limited, with a limited operational network and most of these lines have a low frequency. Even some HSR has a relatively low frequency.

Connections to Portugal are extremely limited. There is no direct train service from Madrid to Lisbon, it requires taking a regional train with 16 stops from Badajoz to Entroncamento, which has a frequency of 2 trains per day.

If you play around on the Renfe website and select some routes outside of the core HSR network via Madrid, it becomes clear that the conventional rail system is pretty poor.

* Badajoz - Madrid: 2 trains per day
* Almería - Madrid: 3 trains per day
* A Coruña - Gijón: 1 train per day, not possible on some days
* Córdoba - Mérida: 2 trains per day

The modal share for car in inland passenger travel in Spain is 84%. Which is at the upper end of the middle group of EU countries.

See dataset: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/bookmark/a7cab620-6fab-4e47-be64-4013186590f0?lang=en

[english si]

Spain's rail system is more limited than you'd think based on high-speed rail or subway length statistics. They spent almost all of their funding for public transport on either urban rail systems (which are good) or the high-speed rail system.

Which makes sense for the rough geography - dense urban centres with not a lot between them.

[kernals12]

If you're wondering how they shoehorned in a 16 lane freeway in the middle of a heavily built up Medieval City, there was an ephemeral river there. They channelized the stream, known as Abroñigal Arroyo, and built the highway on top.

ADOT did something similar on the section of Loop 101 between the Superstition and Santan Freeways, they built on top of a canal. I wonder if they considered putting I-17 and Loop 202 on top of the Salt River.

EDIT: Before anyone asks if they could've done something like this in Los Angeles, unlike Madrid or Phoenix, LA has to contend with earthquakes.