The Alcoutim Chamber will carry out the necessary geotechnical studies to move forward with the future international bridge which will connect this municipality in the northeast of the Algarve to Sanlúcar de Guadiana, on the Andalusian bank of the Guadiana, at a time when there is already a pre-agreement between Portugal and Spain regarding the corridor for the execution of the work, which should be made official “very soon”.
So that this process, which is intended to be speedy, can move forward, the Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR) and the Municipality of Alcoutim signed on Friday, February 11th, the transfer of 100 thousand euros to the municipality , by way of advance, to carry out the preparation studies for the new bridge project.
This is a small part of the approximately 9 million euros needed to build this new connection, which will have to be fully guaranteed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan.
As explained to the Sul Informação Osvaldo Gonçalves, president of the Alcoutim Chamber, this is «the realization of one of those steps that were in the schedule of the contract that was established with CCDR».
“This document provides for an advance of funds, to allow us to assume the expenses related to the various phases of the project”, he recalled.
“We have already carried out the topographical survey. Now, we need to move on to the geotechnical study of both sides of the river, so that we can launch the tender for the execution and environmental assessment project”, revealed, for his part, José Apolinário, president of CCDR do Algarve.
This step is possible due to the homework that was done in conjunction with the Spanish authorities.
“We are in a good rhythm of conversation with the Spanish authorities, which have an administrative organization very different from ours. We have three entities there that have responsibilities. This makes things more complex, in administrative terms», framed Osvaldo Gonçalves.
However, there have been significant advances.
«We have the corridor marked out, defined and we are going to move forward with the studies. In other words, we have here a pre-agreement defined, which will be formalized in a protocol that we will sign very soon, if all goes well», the mayor alcoutenejo told our newspaper.
The location that meets the consensus is the North of Alcoutim and Sanlúcar de Guadiana, which is the area «that will cause fewer problems, both in terms of environmental impact and in terms of execution of the work and costs. I think that we are all well-aligned in this”.
Although the talks with the Spanish neighbors are «going well», on the Portuguese side there is another, much more pressing concern.
“Naturally, for our part, we would like this to proceed at a higher pace. We are aware that there is a fight against time here, because we have to have the execution project approved by mid-2023. CCDR do Algarve and the municipality of Alcoutim, together with the Ayuntamento de Sanlúcar, have done everything that is within our reach to implement what was a political decision of the two governments at the summit», guaranteed José Apolinário.
«We have now made the transfer to the municipality of Alcoutim because we have to have the geotechnical studies concluded by the end of March, in order to proceed with the Environmental Impact Study competition and the execution project. We have to have these works ready by mid-2023. The Recovery and Resilience Plan has dates and goals that are conditions for moving on to the next phase», added the president of CCDR do Algarve.
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