Tunnels in Madeira

“Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.” — Drake

We were very impressed with the roads in Madeira. They're well maintained, well marked and easy to navigate. We noticed two main differences between Madeira and the USA...lots of roundabouts and lots of tunnels. Without the tunnels travel would be almost impossible.

Madeira's mountainous terrain led to the construction of a network of expressways with over 150 tunnels and more than 135 bridges and viaducts. The tunnels are part of a free expressway road network that circles the island. The tunnels are not straight and flat, and can have steep climbs, tight turns and turn offs. The longest tunnel is almost 2 miles long. The tunnels may look modern, but in fact they were built between the 16th century and the 1940s.  

See how much mountain is above some of the tunnels.

Most of the tunnels were lite well and always very clean.

Just a few pictures of the roadway. (photos from the internet.)

One of the pretty roundabouts.