The public tender for the work to replace the boarding pier on Ilha do Farothere, in Faro, will be launched soon by the Sines and Algarve Port Administration (APS), so that the new berth will be ready by the end of 2024.
In statements to the Sul Informação, Fernanda Albino, from the APS Board of Directors, revealed that the launch of the competition should be approved “this week”.
«Our best prediction is that the new pier could be installed by the end of the year», he said.
This, of course, “if everything goes well, in the competition phase”.
Despite having assumed responsibility for this work, the new cai will be delivered, as soon as it is ready, to the City Council. Faro, which has already assumed competences in the management of this type of equipment.
In February 2023, the camera of Faro and APS signed a protocol, to transfer powers to the municipality «in the area of maritime-tourism and passenger transport», which included the transfer of management of the dock Farol for the municipal sphere.
Before this testimony, the need to carry out some improvement interventions at the passenger pier in the center of the city had already been identified. Farol from the island of Culatra.
«There is a passenger pier that is many years old and required a lot of maintenance. It reached a point where it became necessary to carry out deeper requalification», said Fernanda Albino.
At the time it announced that it had taken over the responsibility of the pier, the municipality highlighted that the Administration of the Ports of Sines and Algarve had committed to carrying out interventions in this infrastructure, namely «new improvement of the side stairs, new improvement of the handrails/guards, bodies, increasing the light intensity of lighting posts and regularizing the concrete floor at the top of the pier».
However, after a few months and after studies were carried out, «we realized that it would be as expensive to repair as building a new pier. We placed for consideration the Chamber of Faro and they preferred that a new one be built», said the APS administrator.
Therefore, a project was created to install a new pier, based on a solution that foresees «a metallic structure, with a bridge connected to the land».
This forced the APS to ask the Institute for Nature and Forest Conservation (ICNF) for an opinion, since the Farol is located in the Ria Formosa Natural Park.
«We asked for an opinion and an exchange of communications ensued, in which we were asked for further clarification and we responded».
«Two or three days before we signed the protocol [for the transfer of skills in the urban area of Farol], we finally received a positive opinion from the ICNF, but subject to certain requirements, more of an administrative nature, related to legislation, than technical and physical».
This forced APS to make some changes to the Specifications that already existed, in order to take care of these conditions, work that was recently completed.
It is this work that will now allow the APS CA to approve the launch of the competition.
Once the contractor has been chosen and all the formalities have been completed, the work can be carried out.
What is certain is that there will be no works while the bathing season lasts, not only because that would always be the APS's option – «everything is planned so that it doesn't take place in the summer» -, but also because the Captaincy and other entities with competences in the core of Farol “they do not allow interventions of this type to take place at certain times of the year”.
«This, for us, is not a problem, because the metallic structure will be built elsewhere» and its installation will be quick and without the need for heavy work, concluded Fernanda Albino.
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