Image: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid
Madrid has started work on a new set of vertical gardens along the M-30 near Ventas, in a project run by Madrid Calle 30 and announced by the city council. The installation, which began overnight on 28 July 2026, carries an investment of 5.3 million euros and is scheduled to continue until early 2027. According to the city, the intervention will create more than 2,800 square metres of planted surface along a 400-metre stretch of the ring road.
The project is being carried out on one of the busiest sections of the motorway, between the Salamanca and Ciudad Lineal districts, and work is being organised mainly at night to limit disruption to traffic. The city says the new gardens are intended to improve both the landscape integration of the area and its environmental conditions. The works are taking place in the zone around the Ventas interchange, where the M-30 meets Calle de Alcalá, and alongside Parque Ventas, the urban transformation project that will create a new 16,370-square-metre public space above the road.
The new planting will cover the sides of the access ramps, the bridge abutments and areas beneath the overhanging sections of the structure. The city notes that, unlike the vertical gardens installed on the Avenida de la Ilustración, this project will not require folding panels. Instead, vegetation will be fixed to the existing enclosure of prefabricated concrete modules, with access from interior galleries.
The scheme will use more than 30 Mediterranean species chosen for their resistance to drought and their flowering characteristics, adapted to different levels of sun exposure and orientation. Madrid says the planting will also work as a filter for pollutants, helping to capture suspended particles and absorb compounds such as hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides.
The gardens will include an automated irrigation system using regenerated water from Canal de Isabel II, controlled remotely and supported by a collector for surplus water and a weather station to adjust performance according to climatic conditions. The system also includes a centralised sensor network to measure factors such as substrate humidity, evaporation and temperature. A 65,000-litre main tank is designed to keep irrigation running for three days if supply fails.
The Ventas project is being presented as the city’s second vertical garden installation on the M-30, following the gardens on the Avenida de la Ilustración launched in 2023. A third installation is planned at Puente de Vallecas as part of the Vallecas Abierto project, and the three M-30 gardens together are expected to exceed 6,500 square metres of planted surface. At Ventas, the works run from 28 July 2026 to early 2027.
