Raise the height and increase the width of the sidewalks in the road tunnel that passes under the railway line, in Olhão, thus reducing the slope and making it easier to use, even for those with reduced mobility. This is, in short, the proposal, with two variants, presented last night by the Municipality of Olhão, in a session open to the population.
The public session, which was attended by fifty people, was intended to present and discuss the proposals studied by the municipality's technicians to solve the crossing of the railway, connecting Avenida da República and Avenida Bernardino da Silva, in the heart of the city. of Olhão, after the closure of the uneven passage to the surface, made in September by Refer.
Once this passage is closed, the crossing can only be made through the pedestrian walkways that flank the road tunnel.
Now, these two walkways currently have an inclination ranging from 1,5% to 9,5% in about 140 meters, they do not have resting platforms and, in some places, they are very narrow, with only one meter in width , which does not allow, for example, the crossing of two prams. In light of current mobility rules, such conditions are not even legal.
According to the two proposals presented by technicians from the Chamber of Olhão – an engineer and an architect – these side walkways would be widened, which would also force the width of the carriageways inside the tunnel to be reduced from the current 4 to 3,50 meters. This would ensure that the sidewalks would be at least 1,60 meters wide.
On the other hand, the walkways would be elevated, to reduce the slope to acceptable limits. Thus, in one of the proposals, which would leave intact the panels of local artist Jorge Timóteo that decorate the tunnel, the slope would have a maximum of 8%, rest platforms would be created and, in the innermost area, the passage would have for 40 meters zero slope.
A second solution would be to “eat” about 50 centimeters of the panels, in the words of engineer Mário Alves. But then, said the technician, "we would achieve slopes of 4 to 4,8%", which would be more comfortable. The only problem is, as mentioned, that this solution would partly destroy the tunnel's decorative panels, whose removal is 'too expensive'.
However, the technicians and the Mayor himself admitted, none of these proposals solves – even aggravates, by reducing the width of the tunnel – a cyclical problem: the fact that, no matter how many pumps are installed there, that underpass completely floods whenever it rains harder. Just a few weeks ago this happened. On these occasions, cars don't go by and, of course, people don't...
But there was also a third proposal, made by João Evaristo, an Olandian linked to the local culture, who suggested that, instead of increasing the height of the side walkways, they should be removed and replaced by a single central elevated walkway, in the middle of the lanes of shooting. Such a solution, he argued, "would even make it possible to reduce the total width of the sidewalk and, at the same time, increase the width of the carriageways and, consequently, of the tunnel itself".
The central walkway, crossing the tunnel from one side to the other, would thus be nothing more than an extension of the central walkway of the two avenues. This third solution would oblige, warned João Evaristo, to review the traffic scheme and the circulation of pedestrians on the surface.
Mayor António Pina admitted that this is "a good hypothesis to study".
António Pina: «We are going to provide the area with a crossing with almost the same levels of comfort as the previous one»
Other solutions pointed out by the Chamber's technicians included the creation of an overpass, over the line, with ramps that would reach "more than one hundred meters on each side of the line", the installation of an elevator, which would not give vent to the amount of people who cross all the time on foot – “fags would form up to the foot of Finance”, joked António Pina – or even the creation of a second tunnel, just for pedestrians.
The proposals presented in the public session, and probably also the third proposal, will soon be made available at the Chamber of Olhão, for consultation in person or by electronic means. “After today's session, the proposals will be under discussion for a month, until the end of January”, announced the mayor. The goal is that "anyone who wants to consult, give an opinion, can do so," he added.
Moreover, the works will be paid by Refer, guaranteed the president António Pina, despite not having replied to several of the participants in the session who wanted to know whether or not there is a "written and signed" commitment by the administration of that company.
However, at the end of the public session, in statements to the Sul Informação, António Pina recalled that «the Chamber and Refer issued a joint statement in which this commitment is clearly assumed, in addition to having the word given by the company's management at the meeting we held in Lisbon».
Which solution is chosen, how much will it cost and when it will be built are questions that the mayor says he still cannot answer. But he assures that it will have to be “a reasonable solution, with reasonable costs, that can be studied and implemented in a short time”.
In the road tunnel built some 30 years ago to eliminate the level crossing for cars that cut the city and its main avenues in half, there were always two pedestrian crossings, one on each side. But with the maintenance of a surface passage for people traveling on foot, this underpass was rarely used. With the closing of this uneven pedestrian crossing, for safety reasons, last October, everything changed.
António Pina: despite all the studies, «the problem of flooding the tunnel in case of extreme rain is not solved»
“If we don't want to spend seven or eight years in court, fighting Refer with a case that we will probably lose, we have to make decisions and that's what the Chamber did. Therefore, in the last month and a half, the municipality's technicians have studied solutions and we are here to present them», said the mayor António Pina at the beginning of the public session.
«We have already had the stage of anger, of thinking that this is the arrogance of Refer and a waste of public money. But that doesn't solve the situation for us. It is up to us to define the paths of the future and that is what we are doing. We are going to provide the area with a crossing with almost the same levels of comfort as the previous one”, guaranteed the mayor.
Despite all the studies, one situation will remain unresolved: “the problem of flooding the tunnel in the event of extreme rain is not resolved”. Perhaps, when the railway line is electrified, an aerial walkway will then be built in the area of the neighboring train station, which can be used if necessary. But, as in the case of crossing, there are no known deadlines for such works.
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