The Algarve's PS candidates for the next Legislative Elections want to "reopen the dossier of the Northern Variant to the city of Olhão", one of the works removed by the current Government from the intervention priorities on the EN125, announced José Apolinário, the head of the Socialist list.
After a meeting this morning, with the mayor of Olhão, the also socialist António Miguel Pina, José Apolinário expressed "concern for the fact that the variant was out of priority" in the planned works, considering that this was a "wrong option". since this is «one of the points on the EN125 with the highest traffic».
"We want the Infrastructures of Portugal [publicly owned company responsible for the requalification works] to assume with the City Council a workable calendar, which will allow the reopening and relaunch of the theme of the Northern Variant to the city of Olhão," said the number 1 on the list of PS in statements to Sul Informação.
«The PS wants, within the scope of the Infrastructure Budget of Portugal, to find a feasible solution to resolve this blockage» stressed José Apolinário, stressing that «after the opening of the Variant of Faro, this situation in Olhão becomes even more glaring». «It doesn't make sense that the EN125 remains like this, because Infraestruturas de Portugal, in Lisbon, has no capacity to know the reality on the ground, in Olhão».
The mayor António Pina, for his part, defended that “the people of Olhon cannot be treated differently from their neighbors from Faro. The section of the EN125 that crosses the city is a street in Olhão”, which has, for example, at least 10 pedestrian crossings.
The candidates – in a delegation that included José Apolinário, António Eusébio, Jamila Madeira, Fernando Anastácio and João Pedro Rodrigues – also criticized the recentand announcement of the completion of the EN125 requalification works by the end of 2016, made in statements to the Sul Informação, by António Ramalho, president of Infraestruturas de Portugal.
Expressing himself "tired of being deceived", Apolinario said that "the most recent operation of demagoguery, mystification and lies are the statements of the President of Infrastructures of Portugal ao Sul Informação», since, he stressed, « Estradas de Portugal launched in the beginning of 2015 only competitions for the execution projects, which, according to what is published in the base.gov, had to be ready by August 15th. But there is not a single tender for the award, for the work itself, at least it is not published in the base.gov».
However, stressed the head of the PS list, "those who have not yet launched competitions for the works cannot go public with a promise that they will complete works worth 14 million euros by the end of 2016". First, said José Apolinário, it is necessary “to launch the tenders for the works, then these tenders, to obtain the approval of the Court of Auditors, take up to three months (sometimes even six months), so it is not feasible to carry out 14 million euros of work in nine months, that's throwing sand in your eyes».
"It must be said in all words that, over the last four years, Estradas de Portugal and the government of the current majority have not fulfilled any of the promises they made to the Algarve in terms of the requalification of the 125", he added, in his interview with our newspaper.
Therefore, he announced, «by the end of the year, we want to launch the tender for the execution of the works» that are still needed to finish the requalification of the EN125 in the Olhão/Vila Real de Santo António section.
Apolinário also enunciated what he considered as four facts related to the EN125 requalification works: “1st fact – in the last Legislative Elections, the EN125 requalification was one of the 10 commitments of the PSD candidacy led by Dr. Mendes Bota; 2nd fact – since Dr. Mendes Bota left the Assembly of the Republic, the PSD deputies themselves stopped paying attention to the issue of the requalification of 125; 3rd fact – the only thing that has been done in the Algarve lately was to complete the variants to Faro, Lagos and next to Troto/Almancil, which were projects launched during the PS government; 4th fact - AMAL was promised, in a meeting with the mayors in July 2014, that in August and September 2014 and in February 2015 the construction tenders would be launched, but the only thing that was launched were the execution tenders , there are no competitions for the works'.
The PS candidates also undertake, if elected, to «quarterly present a situation report to the citizens on the development of this process, the contacts we make, our work, reporting the initiatives of the deputies and the next PS Government, in matter of requalification of the EN125'. "We won't give up Portugal's Infrastructures one day with this issue," promised socialist José Apolinário.
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