The M-45 motorway, in the Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 region of Madrid, is one of the several high-capacity roads serving the metropolitan area of Madrid, the capital of Spain. A partial ring around the city, it was built in the early 2000s by the Madrid regional government to help alleviate the congestion of the M-40, an inner full ring road that is amongst the busiest roads in Spain. Originally 37 kilometres (23 mi) long, it ran from the southern M-40 between the links with the A-5

Autovía A-5

The Autovía A-5 is a Spanish autovía which starts in Madrid and ends in Badajoz. It is part of the European Road E90.- Sections :- Major cities crossed:*Madrid*Alcorcón*Móstoles*Navalcarnero...

 and R-5 motorways, to the north-eastern A-2

Autovía A-2

The Autovía A-2 is a Spanish autovía and autopista route which starts in Madrid and ends in Barcelona. It replaces the former N-II.- Sections :- Major cities crossed:*Madrid*Guadalajara*Zaragoza*Fraga*Lleida...

. However, the last 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) in the A-2 end were absorbed by the construction of the outer ring road M-50 due to the discovery of prehistorical remains which altered the planned route of the new road.

It was first opened to traffic on 14 March, 2002, and one year later a poll conducted by the regional ministry of Public Works, Urbanism and Transport showed the M-45 at the top of the Madrid roads in both the "safety" and "fluidity" categories. The use of a shadow toll

Shadow toll

Shadow tolls are payments made by government to the private sector operator of a road based, at least in part, on the number of vehicles using the road. First proposed by the UK Government in 1993, they are currently in operation on some roads in the UK...

to finance its construction gave rise to juridical studies on the concept, as the M-45 was among the first projects to employ it in Spain.