It will travel along Avenida Calouste Gulbenkian, between the roundabouts of the Teatro das Figuras and the Firefighters, aka the Hospital, and give one more excuse to the locals (and others) to leave their car at home and hit the road by bicycle.
The Chamber of Faro yesterday, Tuesday, it consigned the work of a new urban bike lane, an infrastructure that will allow cyclists to circulate in one of the main and busiest axes of the city in complete safety.
The new bike path, which will cost around 160 euros, will start being built next Monday by the company José de Sousa Barra & Filhos.
«This is not a work that will be done entirely from scratch. The part of the lane that will be reserved for the cycle path will be blasted and a new floor laid, so that all the safety conditions for cyclists are guaranteed," he explained to Sul Informação Sophie Matias, councilor for urban planning at the Chamber of Faro.
Earlier, during the official award ceremony, António Palma, architect of the Câmara de Faro, had already explained the technical details of the work.
«The dimensions of Avenida Calouste Gulbenkian allow the introduction of a 1,5 meter wide cycle path on each side, without prejudice to the other road lanes, as the minimum width of 3,5 meters per lane is still guaranteed, more than enough for the unconstrained circulation of any type of vehicle in an urban environment», illustrated the city technician.
In the work itself, "the stripping of a 2,2 meter strip, next to the sidewalks, and a replacement with new pavement will be carried out, so that the bike path can be painted and marked on a pavement as it should be and with contrast" .
On the other hand, as the introduction of the cycle lane will force the axis of the lane to be shifted, the marks now existing on the road will also be stripped and repainted in the right places.
The work will also lead to a profound reorganization of the area surrounding the roundabout of the Municipal Theater and the Prison Establishment, so that bicycles can circulate outside the roundabout, preventing bicycles from having to travel alongside cars.
The design of the new roundabout was thought to guide cyclists to the riverside area. In the future bridge over the railway line, which will make it possible to deactivate the level crossing at Teatro das Figuras, the pedestrian and cycling component “will be taken care of”, assured António Palma.
Sophie Matias added, for her part, that "at a later stage, there will be a physical separation, with rubberized ones, which will be installed at the end of the work."
The bike path, whose construction was assigned yesterday, “will then connect to the sports complex, from where another bike path starts, which ends at the Commercial Port. We also want to revive this infrastructure».
At the same time, the contract for the bike path between Praia de Faro and the airport, which will integrate the Ecovia do Algarve, infrastructure that is part of EuroVelo 1 – Atlantic Coast Route, «a European route that connects Norway to Portugal and which is very important»
“As soon as the work of this ecovia is finished, we will have to sign it with the European brands of EuroVelo”, illustrated Sophie Matias.
According to the councilor of the Chamber of Faro, the capital of the Algarve is already beginning to have a network of cycle paths «with some dimension. Just to give you a number, we did some math and realized that among the already existing bike paths, those that are under construction and the one that are planned, we will have about 30 kilometers of these paths».
The existing bike paths extend for more than 10 kilometres, while construction work on 4,1 kilometres is in progress. “We have also designed about 15 kilometers” of new routes.
“In other words, very soon we will have a good infrastructure here, so that we can all use the bicycle more and in safety. I think there is still a long way to go, but we are doing it and we are very excited about it», concluded Sophie Matias.
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