This Saturday, December 8, it will be a year since tolls were introduced on Via do Infante. Over the course of this year, pessimistic forecasts about the effects of this measure have proved correct: car traffic fell by around 45% on the A22, while it increased on the tired EN125, increasingly bursting at the seams.
And if the predictions – luckily! – it hasn't been right with regard to the exponential increase in accidents and deaths on the EN125, it's just because, with so much traffic, cars move at a snail's pace, which reduces the possibility of accidents…
Tolls have also had very considerable negative effects on the already fragile economy of the Algarve. Furthermore, the Via do Infante was tolled before the work on the EN125 was ready. The numerous roundabouts and bypasses are, for the most part, unfinished, and the works that have been started have even meant that this road is now much worse than it was before work began.
And the point is that it is not known when the works on the EN125 will actually resume, much less when they will be completed. However, as we learned this week, in the areas where the works are still to be completed, at a standstill, there is already degradation. In other words, more money is wasted!
But, unfortunately, despite all the talks about restraint and rigor, in practice our rulers show that they are little concerned with the careless way in which the State's money, for all of us, is managed. Even in times of “restraint”.
A few days ago I was in Trás-os-Montes and I could see a finished example of how we are capable of wasting millions, many millions, but always with a speech where the word rigor is present. This is the case of the A4 motorway, from Amarante to Vila Real and the already sadly famous Túnel do Marão. In this tunnel and on the highway, which have been stopped for over a year and it is not known when and if the works will resume, 800 million euros have been spent so far. I repeat: 800 million euros!
I saw a huge viaduct, two or three kilometers long, crossing the valley near Vila Real, which only has 200 to 300 meters to connect the two sides of the board. I saw the gutted hills and valleys, the razed forest areas, the houses demolished to make way for this somewhat megalomaniac work, which comes from the previous government. The current one decided to stop her.
But in the meantime, 800 million euros have already been spent and it will no longer be possible to go back, demolish what has been built, restore the slopes of Serra do Marão as they were before. But there are 800 million that are literally buried there and now it is not known if the work will ever be finished.
In the Algarve, the same is true for the works on the EN125 or for the Parque Escolar, in secondary schools. There are millions and millions that were spent on works that now, when they are halfway through, it is not known how they will be finished.
I am more and more convinced that we live in a country of madmen!
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