Construction work on Madrid's extensive Line 11 Metro extension unveiled an archaeological find: a section of the 18th-century Real Canal de Manzanares. The canal, an infrastructure used until the late 19th century for transporting goods, was uncovered during the expansion works near the river in the Arganzuela area, according to El Mundo.
The discovery includes about 30 meters of wooden planks propped up with stakes, part of what was once a wharf. These historical remains were found when earthworks began to construct the future Madrid Río station, as reported by El Mundo.
"We are documenting absolutely everything we are finding, as well as doing laser scans and 3D mounts, and freeing the land so that the works continue their course," said archaeologist Esther Andreu.
Constructed during the reign of Charles III, following a longstanding royal ambition dating back to Philip II, the Real Canal de Manzanares was intended to connect Madrid with Aranjuez by river. The ultimate goal was to create a navigable waterway between Madrid and Lisbon, providing river communication between the two capitals.
The canal served as the main means of transport for supplying the needs of local industries, supporting industrialization in the south of Madrid for about 100 years. However, its decline began in the late 19th century with the arrival and extension of the railway, which provided cheaper and faster transport of goods, according to El Mundo.
"We could intuit that it was in this area; what has been a surprise is that it appeared right in the center of what will be the Madrid Río station. As you see, engineers, no matter what era, think alike," explained Andreu.
The archaeological work has influenced the normal progress of the Line 11 expansion, although the work continues, 20 Minutos reported.
As of March, the works at the Madrid Río station reached one-third completion, with 32.25% of the total work completed, according to El Mundo.
In the creation of the first section of the Madrid Río station, more than 210,000 cubic meters of concrete will be used, equivalent to 84 Olympic swimming pools, while approximately 3,500 cubic meters of concrete and 540,000 kilograms of steel have already been used in the construction of the cover slab, El Mundo reported.
The Line 11 extension is the most important public transport project of the Community of Madrid, with an investment of 514 million euros, and aims to decongest Line 6 while consolidating the region as a world reference in public transport.
The Line 11 extension of the Madrid Metro will span more than 33 kilometers and include about twenty stops, connecting the southwest region to the northeast, from Cuatro Vientos to Valdebebas.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.
