Alcoutim is managing to «meet the deadlines of this rigorous schedule that we have» to bring to a successful conclusion the project for the new international bridge over the Guadiana, between this town and SanLúcar, in Spain. At a time when the choice of the bridge designer is coming up soon, Osvaldo Gonçalves is satisfied with the progress of the process, but stresses that the Council, the owner of the work, is taking the utmost care, so that the process is not delayed .
Strict compliance with the deadlines for this work, budgeted at 9 million euros, is essential, since this is an intervention that will be fully paid for by the Recovery and Resilience Plan, so it will have to be completed by 2026, under the risk of this funding get lost.
In statements to the Sul Informação, the mayor of Alcoutim revealed that, at the moment, the six proposals submitted to the tender for the execution of the project, which «ended on the 29th of December», are being evaluated.
«We are in the evaluation phase of the projects that were handed over to us. The winner should be known at the beginning of February», revealed the mayor of Alcoutenejo.
The idea was to have the winner chosen before the visit of the Secretary of State for Regional Development to Alcoutim, which takes place today, the 26th, in the afternoon. However, the Chamber refused to expedite the process to make this happen.
«We want to do everything very carefully, neatly and correctly, so as not to give rise to anyone here complaining and delaying the process. We don't want to take any risks," he said.
Only then will it be possible to have the work on the ground in 2024, so that it ends in 2026.
These tight deadlines make this the project «that consumes us the most today, in terms of working hours», according to Osvaldo Gonçalves.
After all, Alcoutim is a small town council and, confesses its president, the fact that she was designated as the project manager took the council executive by surprise.
From the moment the bridge was included in the PRR, “there was the entire protocol elaboration procedure. A week before signing the contract, I found out that we were going to be in charge of the work, something for which we don't have the structure and we're not minimally prepared».
«I had two options: either I signed and assumed some dose of risk, not to say madness [laughs], or I said no and today we were not talking about the bridge, but about another failed attempt», he said.
Osvaldo Gonçalves decided to move forward and does not regret it.
“Since then, we have been breaking new ground, always with CCDR's indispensable and always available participation – and I do justice to the unconditional support we received from Dr. José Apolinário and the architect Pacheco, who have been impeccable », he said.
«We also had to make contacts with Spain. It took the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get into this, because while it didn't, we've been marking time. From the moment they entered the process, things evolved very quickly», added Osvaldo Gonçalves.
Meanwhile, the «invaluable collaboration of CCDR» and the «merit of our technical office, which has been up to the task of accompanying the process and deserves full recognition», was joined by the consultancy support of a law firm hired for the purpose. and «a provision of services by the University of the Algarve, which is supporting us through the engineer Carlos Martins».
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