Colonia Jardín-Pozuelo de Alarcón Light Rail

The next stop, Somosaguas Sur, located in the municipality of Pozuelo, is underground, with accesses located on c/Veritas, close to the Prado de Somosaguas Municipal Sports Center, a British School and various housing estates.

The route continues in a north-westerly direction, coming to the surface next to the M-502, where the Somosaguas Centro station is located, located in the southern area of ​​the La Finca Business Park, and connected by a pedestrian walkway to the Zoco de Pozuelo.

The route continues adjacent to the M-502, crosses Paseo del Río underground, next to the roundabout with c/Sotavento to reach the Pozuelo Oeste stop, located opposite the Fire Station and the Emergency Center facilities. 112; It also has a nearby playground and garden areas that border the La Finca urbanization and a sports club, where there is also a hotel.

The route continues on the surface until it reaches the junction of the Carretera de Carabanchel with the M-503, crossing it through an underground section in which the route describes a curve to the east, continuing in parallel along the Vía de Las Dos Castillas, which the Light Rail runs along the southern edge of the urban area of ​​the town of Pozuelo de Alarcón.

On the side closest to the center of Pozuelo are the new developments in this area, which have various services, restaurant terraces and garden areas. There are two stops on this section: the first, Belgium, located in front of the Parquesol Building and after it, you reach the Dos Castillas stop.

The expansion of the M-503 highway, which had been undersized as it passed through Pozuelo, was developed simultaneously with the Light Rail infrastructure, finally becoming a unified construction process.

After passing this stop, the route continues over a bridge that crosses the M-503 to then cross the Carretera de Húmera in a tunnel and reach the University Campus of Somosaguas. It is a surface station, located to the northwest of the campus and in front of the main car park.

With the aim of alleviating the existing deficiencies in the traffic distribution roundabouts coming from the M-502 and Húmera, they were depressed. In addition, a pedestrian walkway was built that serves the University of Somosaguas.

Next, the line goes back into the tunnel to cross Vía de las Dos Castillas and Avenida de Europa, which gives its name to the underground station where the next stop is made; The station is located under Avda. de la Comunidad de Madrid and Avda. de Europa and its entrances are next to a playground, in a busy area of ​​Pozuelo.

The route continues underground, following the Avenida de la Comunidad de Madrid until reaching the last station in the municipality of Pozuelo, the Berna station. It is a very pleasant stop, since probably in Bern we find one of the most brilliant performances in relation to the landscaping treatment of a Light Rail station. Berna is laid out in the shape of a trench and has an elevator located at the intersection of Avda. de Europa and Calle Plutón.

After the Berna station, the rest of the route takes place on the surface, leaving residential developments of chalets on both sides until reaching the Aravaca station, where a multimodal interchange has been created that links the Light Metro, the Cercanías network and several lines of buses. The station is located in an urbanized environment with a variety of services, at the intersection of Calle Golondrina and Avenida del Talgo, belonging to the Aravaca neighbourhood.

Technical data

To form the track, proceed as follows:

• On level and compacted ground, a layer of cleaning concrete is first poured.
• A steel mesh is spread over this concrete to assemble what we can call “cast concrete”, which is intended to keep the rails in place. This mesh is raised slightly by means of spacers so that it remains within the mass of the cast concrete. The rail coupons are welded by aluminothermic welding.
• The track is then formed with two rails previously packed with the elastomer. To do this, trestles are used that, like false sleepers, maintain both lanes at the exact level of the gauge. These trestles are supplied by the manufacturer of the elastomer that surrounds the rails. They join both rails above the rolling plane and are equipped with vertical and horizontal jacks to facilitate the leveling and alignment of the track, which is checked topographically.
• Afterwards, the draft concrete is poured. This concrete reaches from the upper face of the previous cleaning concrete to a lower level of 12 or 13 cm below the road surface. This concrete is what keeps the rails in place, forming the road. The centimeters indicated between the upper face of this concrete and the rolling plane are reserved to be able to configure the pavement that is desired for that section of the platform. 
• This type of road is the same throughout the trace. In it, the rails are isolated from the concrete that surrounds them and holds them, both electrically and mechanically, that is, from all kinds of vibrations. Braces are not used on this track and the track devices are placed using the same procedure.

Despite the uniformity, three variants must be pointed out to this road: “normal”, “comfort” and “floating slab”.

In the normal one, the three parts that form the rail case are made of the same elastomeric material.

In the so-called "comfort" the elastomer that is located under the slider of the rails is much more shock-absorbing than in the previous case.

In the so-called “floating slab” the cast concrete has a rectangular cross-section and is separated from the structural concrete of the platform by means of elastomeric "blankets" or mats. In this way the structural concrete is said to "float" between the elastomers that surround the rails and the blanket that surrounds it. This arrangement effectively eliminates low frequency vibrations.

Finally, it should be noted that the rails have been welded in their entirety using the aluminothermic procedure, even in the track devices. There is no flanged joint in the entire installation.

The platform and its associated facilities receive a specific treatment as it passes through each of the urban areas it crosses, acting both on its coverings (which can be plant species, cobblestone and printed concrete in pedestrian traffic areas or asphalt in road junctions) as well as its noise and vibration damping characteristics.

roundabout depression

The M-503 highway, passing through Pozuelo de Alarcón, had been undersized, causing traffic saturation and long waiting times. This situation occurred especially in the traffic collection and distribution roundabouts coming from the M-502 and Húmera respectively. In order to alleviate these deficiencies, the depression of these roundabouts was carried out, now passing the traffic on the M-503 to a lower level than the accesses to the municipality.

As a complementary work to the execution of the road, a new cable-stayed pedestrian walkway was built that connects the municipality with the Somosaguas Campus and Stop 11 of the new Light Rail line.

Europa Avenue Station

Located at the intersection of Avda. de Europa and Avda. de la Comunidad de Madrid.

It provides service to the area of ​​urbanizations, commerce and leisure that are developed in its surroundings and that comprise one of the main vital nuclei of the residential area of ​​Pozuelo de Alarcón.

The station is located inside the tunnel that begins at kilometer point 6,815 of the Light Metro route, crosses under the M-503 and reaches kilometer point 7,945, in the vicinity of what will be the future Avda. deI Talgo, the Avda. de Carlos III and Avda. de Europa at its closest end to the municipality of Madrid.

The tunnel was executed using pile walls. The station has an approximate length of 100 m, of which 46 are platform. This platform has a width of 5,5 m. As in Somosaguas Sur, it is finished off with edge slabs in which 2 strips of "carborundum" are immersed to prevent unwanted slipping.

The station has an elevator, a fixed staircase and an escalator. The pile screens around the station are covered by white and red vitrified sheet metal panels.

On the ground floor, the station is crowned by two structures finished in stainless steel and glass that cover the elevator and the stairs, respectively.

The existing urbanization before the works is completely replaced and includes the sidewalk, a playground and gardening, having exclusively changed the location of the aforementioned structures and the ventilation and compensation holes of the station that are covered with special tramex for heavy traffic. .

Bern Station

Located in Pozuelo, at the intersection of Avda. de la Comunidad de Madrid, Avda. de Europa and Avda. de Carlos III. At this point it begins to be buried to run under Avda. de la Comunidad de Madrid, which is why a trench has been created that leaves slopes on both sides of the aforementioned stop, which is resolved with a central platform and has for its access with a work staircase and an elevator.

The most important point, as far as creating a landscape is concerned, is presented in the treatment of the slopes of the two sides of the roads. A large garden area has been created, made up of terraces that make it possible to attenuate the slopes of the embankments, with the aim that the perception by users of the metro from the platform is as less overwhelming as possible and that it opens up perspectives on the station for people who make use of the areas mentioned above.

The terraces were built using retaining walls of prefabricated concrete blocks anchored to the ground by geogrids. The finish of the block is of the Split beveled type and Caleño color. The walls of the viewpoints of Avda. del Talgo are topped with a prefabricated concrete impost. The set of walls form a sinuous and stepped layout that aims to recreate artificial hills that, with the complement of gardening, configure a landscape for the enjoyment of the citizen.