Madrid City Council has authorized construction of the initial 560-meter stretch of Gran Vía del Sureste, a major green boulevard planned to change the Ensanche de Vallecas district. With a budget of €13.1 million, the project aims to turn a neglected urban gap into public space with wide pedestrian areas, dedicated cycling paths, and a reserved lane for a future Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. Work is scheduled to begin in September, with completion expected by spring 2028.
This first phase will run between the roundabout near the M-45 and Avenida del Ensanche de Vallecas, an area that still lacks proper infrastructure despite being part of Madrid’s recent urban expansion. The plan includes a central boulevard spanning more than 21,000 square meters, surrounded by greenery and designed to prioritize walking, cycling, and sustainable mobility. City officials say the project is intended to improve environmental quality and encourage residents to choose alternatives to private cars.
The new avenue will be lined with 875 trees and more than 86,000 shrubs and plants, supported by efficient irrigation systems and LED lighting. Street furniture, children’s play zones, calisthenics areas, and a decorative fountain, envisioned as a neighborhood meeting point, will be distributed along the route. A dedicated corridor for the future BRT will let high-capacity buses connect the southeast’s new developments, separated from regular traffic. Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida has described the boulevard as combining cycle lanes and spaces for walking and leisure with dedicated lanes for the future rapid-bus system.
Gran Vía del Sureste is also part of Madrid’s wider green-infrastructure agenda, alongside projects including the Bosque Metropolitano, Madrid Nuevo Norte, Paseo Verde del Suroeste, and Parque Castellana. The city aims to connect southeastern developments through a green mobility corridor, rather than treat the first Vallecas section as a standalone road scheme.
Opposition parties have broadly welcomed the change of public space, but criticism has focused on the project’s timeline and planning. The Socialist group says green spaces, bike lanes, and public transport corridors have long been on its agenda, while accusing Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida’s administration of treating new neighborhoods as isolated islands instead of integrating them into a citywide mobility network. It points to the ongoing challenge of ensuring effective public transport links to the rest of Madrid.
José Luis Nieto, councillor for Más Madrid, echoed these concerns. He noted that the announcement comes 18 years after the area’s initial development and pointed to delays in other local infrastructure, including access to Hospital Enfermera Isabel Zendal. He also questioned why the city council, rather than the Los Berrocales Compensation Board, is overseeing the works and criticized the lack of improved access to the A-3 motorway.
Gran Vía del Sureste is planned as a 16-kilometer green corridor connecting six major developments in southeast Madrid: Ensanche de Vallecas, Valdecarros, Los Berrocales, Los Ahijones, El Cañaveral, and Los Cerros. These areas are expected to accommodate tens of thousands of new homes in the coming decades, making the boulevard a backbone for residential growth and a sustainable alternative to car travel. Its design breaks from traditional car-centric avenues, reducing space for vehicles and prioritizing pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport. In some sections, the boulevard will rival the width of Paseo de la Castellana.
The initiative is part of the city’s broader Southern Strategy, which seeks to address historic imbalances by directing investment into Madrid’s southern and eastern districts. Alongside Gran Vía del Sureste, the council is advancing other urban regeneration projects in Villa de Vallecas, Vicálvaro, Usera, Villaverde, Carabanchel, and Puente de Vallecas. Planned housing totals are impressive: Valdecarros alone is set to deliver more than 50,000 homes, with other developments adding tens of thousands more. Strong public transport and sustainable mobility have long been priorities for these expanding neighborhoods. The infrastructure challenge has a longer planning history: a 1992 report in El País covered debates over Madrid’s expansion and the relationship between housing growth, land use, and transport.
The project has also featured in a separate electoral proceeding over campaign communications. The Madrid Electoral District Board rejected a PSOE complaint about a social-media post by Almeida, finding that the municipality had not been shown to have organized, financed, or disseminated the message, or used municipal resources to prepare it. The ruling concerned communication about the project, not authorization for construction. In the same report, 20minutos noted a separate order requiring Más Madrid to remove a different campaign banner within 24 hours.
Madrid’s approach to urban change echoes debates in other Spanish cities, including the controversy over the future of Valencia’s Mestalla stadium, where urban identity and development priorities have sparked public discussion. For example, the debate around Mestalla’s demolition highlights how large-scale projects can reshape city life and collective memory.
With the contract approved, Madrid is taking its first concrete step toward a project announced two years ago, with the aim of redefining mobility and public space in the southeast. If the schedule holds, Ensanche de Vallecas will get the first completed section of what is set to become the basic urban axis for Madrid’s largest residential expansion in decades.
