As in any human brain, the one in the M-30 tunnels has its own neuronal web. In this specific case, artificial, since it is a radio communication system that extends through the 48 kilometers underground of the ring road, configuring an intelligent structure. Thanks to these nervous impulses, a daily frenzy of vehicles can be sustained that reaches 488 million users per year circulating along the entire road. But neurons age and lead, for example, to slower responses. And if these are technological, even more so.
Hence, as GRAN MADRID has learned, the capital’s City Council, through the company Madrid Calle 30, attached to the Municipal Works and Equipment Area headed by Paloma García Romerois going to completely renew the communication network of the tunnels which, with some tweaks, is still the same one with which those long underground galleries of the city landed almost two decades ago.
Thus, the project will be put out to tender today with a budget of 4.8 million euros. According to the plans being handled, the renovation works will begin in the first days of next spring and will conclude in April 2027. It will last for 13 months an intervention that will not affect traffic, since work will be carried out inside the control centers, technical rooms and the more than 200 emergency exits. And it will not affect the part of the optical fiber, which reaches the 110,000 meters long at the M-30 facilities. There will only be some occasional lane cutting with the renewal of the tunnel mouth amplifiers, to proceed with the removal of the equipment.
Control Center of the M-30 tunnels.
«What makes it possible for this system to respond is radio communications. Both inside the tunnel and those carried out between the inside and outside of it, with the same features that exist on the surface. When there is an incident, the emergency services and the Police have an effective possibility of coordinating between them,” he explains to this newspaper. Antonio Jesus Baconmanaging director of Madrid Calle 30.
The infrastructure has two different systems that are responsible for this interconnection. One, known as TETRAPOLmaintains communications between the National Police and the Civil Guard. The other, who responds to the name of TETRAprovides coverage for the Municipal Police, Firefighters and SAMUR. In addition, they are responsible for guaranteeing the operation of analog channels of the Fire Department, the radio communications of Madrid Calle 30 and commercial FM stations.
This vital communication is supported by two radiating cables that run through the roof of the extensive tunnel network: one, intended for emergency services (TETRAPOL and TETRA) and the other, for the rest of the transmissions (UHF and FM).
36 new FM stations
A connection between security forces and emergencies without which life inside the tunnels would be much more uncertain, hence the imminent arrival of cutting-edge technology to guarantee a rapid and coordinated response in the event of an emergency. With this technical boost, the number of frequency modulated stations will also increase, which can be heard thanks to the infrastructure installed to replicate the signal, going from the current 12 FM channels to the 48 that will exist at the end of the intervention.
Given the hypothesis that a serious event occurs inside the tunnels, the system, known by those who work there as M-30 Radiohas the possibility of informing users through the different stations of the appropriate recommendations if necessary. And, with this technological leap that is coming, responding to any mishap underground will be easier.
One of the drills in the tunnels.
«We are carrying out a technological innovation plan, as we have done for example with the modernization of the control center or the placement of additional beacons, which will allow the M-30 tunnels to have better services. “We have gone to look for the most modern thing on the market,” adds the managing director of Madrid Calle 30.
This project to renew the radio communication system is part of the program that is already underway to modernize the facilities at Madrid Calle 30. As an example, the recent (and expected) implementation of Bluetooth electronic beacons to prevent the GPS signal from being lost in the tunnels. Also, the project for centralized management of the gallery control center, financed with Next Generation European funds. Or the exterior lighting and reinforcement projects in the tunnels – there are 53,000 luminaires in tunnelrooms and galleries-. A cocktail that adds up to an already executed investment of 34 million, to which we would have to add the 4.8 million of this next episode that, if nothing goes wrong, will start next spring.
And everything, so that this surgical neural network under the floor of the capital responds with precision in any small corner of its 48 kilometers of tentacles. An extensive underground passage, the widest in the world, only surpassed by the Japanese Yamate tunnel, which will have a cutting-edge technological boost for its shielding.