Lisbon's April 25th bridge is in need of some serious repair work, with many newspapers claiming the structure is unsafe and that trains and HGVs should be banned.
Whether or not repair is necessary to prevent the bridge collapsing, what is clear is that the €40 million a year toll income collected from drivers will continue to be kept by Lusoponte rather than a cent of it used on structural repairs.
The concession holder has not paid anything towards maintenance since 2001, before which the company chipped in €2.25 million-a-year towards structural repairs.
There now is a repair bill of €20 million and the taxpayer will be picking up the tab for this work that should start at the end of the year, assuming the bridge is still standing.
The bridge structure is not in a good state, according to the Institute of Welding and Quality (ISQ) and the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering which has suggested urgent attention be paid to the bridge’s structure.
As for the taxpayers' liability, the Ministry of Planning and Infrastructures, under the management of Pedro Marquês, has pointed to an amendment, made in 2001, to the contract for the bridge concession.
It was in 2001 that Lusoponte stopped paying the financial contribution towards structural maintenance work but remained responsible for road surfaces, signage, railings and other non-structural aspects. The structure remained the responsibility of the State, through Estradas de Portugal, now Infraestruturas de Portugal.
Up to 2001 there was a financial contribution from the concession holder towards the cost of the type of work that now needs doing. The change in the contract in 2001 revoked this contribution, during the António Guterres government, after a tragedy at Entre-os-Rios on the Douro, after which Lusoponte was freed from sharing the cost of structural maintenance for the April 25th bridge.
The Entre-os-Rios tragedy occurred in 2001 when a bridge fell into the Douro river and 59 people travelling in a bus and 3 cars, died. Some 36 bodies were never found.
As for the deterioration to the bridge structure, widely reported last week, the Government has rejected any imminent danger.
The release of the necessary funds for the work is still pending and the Minister of Infrastructures has told parliament that work will start in the third quarter of the year and that HGVs and trains can still use the bridge.
