The tendering parameters are "ready and should be released within one to two months” said Faro mayor, Rogério Bacalhau in May 2014, referring to the construction of a new road bridge to Faro island.
In November 2014, Faro council was said by its opposition to have displayed an "inability and a lack of political influence" for losing out on Community funding for the construction of the new bridge.
In June 2014, environmental organisation, Quercus, lodged a complaint to the Brussels that the planned bridge encroached into various areas of specially protected land in a Site of Community Importance in the Ria Formosa area. The affetced zone also is a Special Protection Area for Birds, an area which is protected by national law within the Ria Formosa Natural Park, and it comes under the Ria Formosa Ramsar protected area.
The detailed complaint asks the European Commission immediately to suspend the planned EC co-funding of the project until a final decision is made.
Nearly two years later, Polis Litoral Ria Formosa is expected to launch a long-overdue tender after its next meeting on April 1st.
Algarve MPs António Eusébio and Luís Graça, met the president of Polis Litoral Ria Formosa who gave assurances that the process will take place “soon.”
"After the false announcement made by the Faro council that this work would be started in 2014, which unfortunately was just another electoral promise, we can confirm that the Socialist Party government of will build a new bridge to the island of Faro," said the (socialist) politicians who said that, "the Ministry of the Environment now has all the processes completed and has the funds needed to launch the new bridge," - while not making it clear why the ministry is involved in a project to be funded by Polis which has its own budget.
Taking full political advantage during this pre-election period, António Eusébio said that the Socialist Party government has done its part in completing the work process and securing funding for the new bridge.
“We now hope that Faro council rapidly will approve its financial contribution, around 20% of the overall construction cost, so as not to waste more time and if possible try and make up some of the years lost under the previous Government, since the new bridge is essential to guarantee access for everyone to this island," stated Eusébio in a shameless example of the very pre-election rhetoric he earlier had criticised.
The first budget put forward by Bacalhau in May 2014 was for a spend of €3 million, a price so extortionate that the country’s leading bridge engineer felt compelled to say that it easily could be done for half this amount.
In 2014 the mayor could not say whether the project would be for a two-lane bridge or a one-lane version which would have similar problems to those already experienced by motorists and delivery services.
Faro council said in September 2016, that a solution is at hand that takes into account "the obvious need to increase service levels, safety and comfort of users, and access to Faro island’s beach," and waffled on that it will be "even more effective than the current one from the point of view of its construction over the river, the environment, its design and ease of use."
The Social Democrat council opposition points out that the Environment Ministry, under which Polis operates, is far from agreeing the project funding and the council's willingness to subsidise the State by paying 20% of the cost is neither here nor there, as the project funding remains illusive and is being dangled in front of voters' noses in this election year.
Facing council inaction, a possible environmental injunction and a justifiable feeling locally that nothing will ever get done, it remains to see if the construction of a simple structure to replace the existing one really is ‘a bridge too far.’
