In a few years, whoever goes to downtown Faro, you will be able to walk a Cultural Kilometer and directly contact the Ria Formosa, without fear that a train will block your eyes. And it all starts with an overpass over the railway line, in the Teatro das Figuras area.
The signing of a protocol for the suppression of the existing level crossing next to this cultural space and the construction of a new roadway ticket, as well as the presentation of the Cultural Kilometer, the new concept that the Faro local authority wants to give to downtown, were highlighted in the solemn session of the Day of the Municipality of Faro, which took place yesterday, Monday.
In the case of the intervention on the Algarve Line, it will be carried out under a protocol signed today between the City Council and Infraestruturas de Portugal.
This agreement aims to eliminate three level crossings, one road, the one next to the theater and the former Escola Superior de Saúde, and two pedestrians: the one located at the dock in Faro, in the Hotel Eva area, and the one in front of Portas do Mar, which gives access to the departure point for the islands.
In the first case, what is at issue is the «abolition of the level crossing here next to the theater, to allow free access to this area, which the Chamber wants to re-qualify», revealed Carlos Fernandes, vice-president of Infrastructures of Portugal, to journalists. margin of the solemn session of the Day of the Municipality.
"The City Council took over the preparation of the execution project and Infraestruturas de Portugal will carry out the work, an intervention with an estimated investment of around 2,5 million euros", revealed the same person in charge.
Removing this road level crossing will be much more than a mere safety issue. It is also a ticket to the development of the area south of the railway and the riverside walk.
This is because the solution found, «an overpass to be built in the same place», is what comes to «allow the development of the space that is south of the line».
«IP, based on the law, cannot authorize the requalification of that space, while the level crossing is there. We cannot encourage an increase in crossings at a level crossing, which would hinder the redevelopment of this area of the city, explained the vice president of the publicly owned company.
In other words, there is a cause-effect relationship between the deactivation of the level crossing and the requalification that the City Council wants to promote in the prime area of the Algarve capital, which includes the estuary front.
Thus, this is, according to Rogério Bacalhau, president of the Chamber of Faro, the priority project and the first to be carried out, among those presented at the session.
"The goal is to have the project done next year, to deliver it to Infraestruturas de Portugal, so that they can launch a tender for execution, probably still during the next year," said the mayor farense.
From the moment it is possible to cross the line by car, passing over the railway line, the City Council sees its range of possibilities widen.
And there is no lack of ideas for the Faro local authority, which has developed a new concept, which will preside over the redevelopment of Baixa: the Cultural Kilometer, located between Teatro das Figuras and Fábrica da Cerveja.
This is, according to Rogério Bacalhau, «a structured idea, which emerged when we were studying the Strategic Plan for Culture».
“We had a set of projects that were already underway and we gathered them all here, to give it some coherence, adding a few more things,” explained Rogério Bacalhau to journalists.
"We have a team doing the project for the seafront promenade, which is the redevelopment of this entire area [from the theater] to the dock", he summed up.
At the same time, the Chamber is “launching a project for the requalification of the entire area from the Station to Largo de São Francisco: Avenida da República, Jardim Manuel Bívar, etc.”.
“It is an area that has lost its comfort and attractiveness today. It is the prime area of the city, but which, as a result of a series of interventions over the decades, has lost its coherence", believes the mayor of Faro.
Thus, the Chamber decided “to hire a team that looks to that area and carries out the necessary requalification, giving it comfort, consistency and attractiveness”.
«This entire area will be intervened in the coming years, and we are going to give it a cultural and humanistic component, through this Cultural Kilometer», he summed up.
And if at one end of this new area is the well-functioning Teatro das Figuras, at the other is a property that everyone recognizes its potential, but which is slow to find a direction.
«At the Beer Factory, we currently have a team thinking about the cultural destination for that equipment. It is easy to say that we are going to build cultural equipment there, but we have to understand what we are going to do», revealed Rogério Bacalhau.
In this way, the municipality hired “a team just to think about it and to give us ideas of what to do, so that in the end we have a coherent project that is sustainable”.
Another component of this Cultural Kilometer will be located in the currently undervalued area to the south of the railway.
Here, in addition to the redevelopment of the riverside promenade, the construction of an exterior dock is still planned, next to the existing one, but on the opposite side of the line, in the middle of the Ria Formosa, as well as a walkway from the new recreational port to Largo de São Francisco.
This is where the suppression of the other two level crossings contained in the protocol signed today comes into play.
“The global agreement also included the suppression of pedestrian level crossings, also in the riverside area”, explained Carlos Fernandes, from IP.
In this case, the Chamber assumes not only the development of the execution projects, but also the execution of the works.
“We're going to make two underpasses and a third, which we haven't decided yet if it will be superior or inferior, in Largo de São Francisco. These, we pay. The cost will be more or less the same, around 2,5 million euros», revealed Rogério Bacalhau.
«When they are all done, we will no longer have level crossings from the theater to Horta da Areia», explained the Farense mayor.
«There is another process in progress, whose protocol will be signed shortly, which has to do with the transfer of the management of a set of assets that belong to IP and which will now be managed by the City Council: the covered pier, which is located in the area of the station, and a set of land that will also be requalified by the local authority», added the vice-president of IP.
«We are going to sign, within a month or two, another protocol with IP, so that the Station's warehouses are under our responsibility. We want to create a large exhibition area there», said Rogério Bacalhau in his turn.
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