A team from the Intervention Group for Protection and Relief (GIPS) of the GNR is, throughout the day, causing the controlled collapse of unstable sections of the wall and the cliff on the Nossa Senhora da Rocha Promontory, on the coast of Lagoa, in a coordinated action with the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA/ARH).
The intervention comes after the fall, at the end of last November, of a section of about two meters of the wall that surrounds the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Rocha, as well as some blocks of the cliff area located under the wall.
Sebastião Teixeira, responsible for the Portuguese Environment Agency/ARH Algarve, which coordinates operations at the site, told the Sul Informação that the task of the elements of the GIPS, using climbing techniques, is to "drop what has clear signs of being unstable", that is, "a part of the wall and blocks of the cliff".
The official, who met on the spot with councilor Anabela Simão, responsible for the Environment in the Lagoa Chamber, and with technicians and other municipal officials, added that, for now, "no form of consolidation is planned for the cliff."
Sebastião Teixeira: «To consolidate this cliff, it is necessary to weigh the value of the financial option, the value of the disfigurement of the promontory. All this has to be weighed and weighed»
"Only after this work is finished [controlled dismantling of unstable areas] will we be able to see if the cliff gets better or worse," added Sebastião Teixeira. “We assume that it will get better, since what was unstable is no longer there because we made it fall”, he admitted, but that “will not give more years of life to the cliff”.
"This cliff has symptoms that there are parts that are going to fall, so we're going to make them fall so that they don't fall when it doesn't matter", namely during the bathing season, when there are bathers in Praia Nova, which is next to the Promontory of Senhora da Rock.
But it is also necessary to ensure the safety of those visiting the small chapel of Nossa Senhora da Rocha, at the top of the promontory, one of the most sought after places by tourists in the entire municipality of Lagoa.
As for an eventual consolidation, a solution that is defended by the Câmara de Lagoa, the regional director of the APA/ARH says that “after we carry out this operation, we will consider what can be done next”.
However, he warned, "any intervention that is thought of making will have to take into account the religious, heritage and natural values" present. “If you put a band and a concrete wall around the promontory here, it disappears and this ceases to have the meaning it has. To consolidate, it is necessary to weigh the value of the financial option, the value of the disfigurement of the promontory. All this has to be weighed and weighed».
José Vieira/Câmara de Lagoa: «Any decision must result from a joint technical assessment, by various bodies and at various levels, also summoning the Heritage, which results in a duly substantiated written report»
José Fernando Vieira, landscape architect and technician at the Department of the Environment of Câmara de Lagoa, responsible for the coast, argues, however, that «the removal of these more unstable areas is only a first phase of the necessary intervention».
"The second phase will be to keep visiting this Promontory with some dignity and for a few more years."
«If we gain another ten years in this process, we will have a few more years to think, evaluate and implement solutions. We may even come to the conclusion that there is no possible solution, weighing costs and gains, at various levels. But such a decision must result from a joint technical assessment, by various bodies and at various levels, also summoning the Heritage, which results in a duly substantiated written report. You can't stay for conversations for which there aren't even a single minute», said José Vieira.
On the cliffs, the elements of the GIPS, using manual tools or hydraulic pads, hanging from rappelling cables, make the blocks of the cliff fall which, to the naked eye, appear to be more unstable. The operation should be completed later this day.
The Fort and Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Rocha, located on the Promontory, are classified as a Property of Public Interest by Decree published on October 25, 1963, when they underwent partial consolidation and restoration intervention, works under the responsibility of the Directorate-General of National Buildings and Monuments (DGEMN).
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