Recovery and resilience plan “offers” variant to Olhão

The road to the EN125 is «an old ambition of the people of Olho d'

Construction of the variant will avoid crossing Olhão on the EN125 – Photo: Hugo Rodrigues | Sul Informação

The bypass to the EN125 in Olhão will be one of the few road infrastructure works that will advance within the scope of the Recovery and Resilience Plan, a strategy that is in public consultation and which will be financed with the so-called “European bazooka”.

This was an "old ambition of the people of Olhano", which will become a reality in the coming years, whose inclusion in the PRR was "conquered with a lot of work and persistence" and was the result "of many hours of diplomacy", he revealed to Sul Informação António Pina, mayor of Olhão.

The process, moreover, made progress last week, with the launch by Infraestruturas de Portugal «a tender for the preparation of the work execution project. (…) The public tender for the award of the work will follow, which we hope will be launched in 2022».

In this way, the fact that the work is included in this investment plan, which aims to revitalize the economy in the post-pandemic period, does not surprise the mayor of Olhão.

“Following the meetings we had with the minister and with the Infrastructures of Portugal (IP), we knew that this variant was at the top of the priorities, at national level”, said António Pina.

«Mr. Minister of Infrastructure, since this initiative had some degree of maturity, he understood, and rightly so, to place it in the Recovery and Resilience Plan», he added.

 

António Pina – Photo: Nuno Costa | Sul Informação

 

After all, this is a work that was already designed to be carried out, as part of the requalification of the EN125, it was dropped by the Government of Pedro Passos Coelho, after the renegotiation of the Rotas do Algarve Litoral concession and was once again placed on the table during the first term of the socialist government of António Costa.

In early 2017, Pedro Marques, the then minister of Planning and Infrastructure, came to Olhão to announce the launch of the competition for the preliminary study of this work, something that happened a few months later.

The progress of the process led António Pina to go public highlight the importance of the work «for the development of Olhão as a city and municipality» and for «that this territory has an effective alternative road to the EN 125, which crosses the city, with the consequent constraints on car and pedestrian traffic».

At this time, the end of 2018 was still pointed out as the date for the start of the works, although it was highlighted that there were still many procedures to be done.

Reality gave reason to these warnings of caution, since, about a year later, in July 2018, the preliminary study was not yet completed. Still, Pedro Marques assured that the work was not forgotten.

In May 2019, the Environmental Impact Study for the project, which has since been prepared and delivered by IP to the Environmental authorities, went to public consultation and ended up receiving favorable statement.

 

Original proposal for the Olhão Variant, the solution defended as the best in the Environmental Impact Study

 

Last week, Infraestruturas de Portugal announced that the public tender for the preparation of the Execution Project of the EN125 bypass, in Olhão, had been published in Diário da República.

«The studies to be contracted are aimed at creating a road, with about 6,1 kilometers, which will be a road alternative to the National Road, ensuring important benefits in terms of car and pedestrian safety, and traffic flow in the city center of Olhão, by removing transit traffic from the urban area», reads the communication of this public company, responsible for the execution and financing of the work.

«The future variant will start at kilometer 111,6 of the EN125, where a new roundabout will be built, which will connect again to the Estrada Nacional in the existing roundabout at kilometer 116,1. In order to strengthen the articulation with the local road network, the project will also contemplate the creation of another four new roundabouts and a junction to improve access to the industrial zone located at the end of the route”, he added.

“The PRR has little endowment for road infrastructure and very few works were considered. Here in the Algarve we only had the Olhão bypass and the bridge between Alcoutim and Sanlúcar, so we are pleased that ours has been considered a priority», said António Pina.

 

 

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