“Roadworks on the EN125 creep on for years. They cause huge delays and traffic jams. This does not occur in other countries where interventions are planned and roadworks have defined and agreed deadlines.”
I wrote this in early February this year and the situation remains the same.
At many EN125 roadwork sites there are machines but no workers. At others work has been stopped. I asked some VIPs why, and finally I understood.
Contractors in Portugal and in some other countries give extremely high bids for roadworks in order to have a margin to pay bribes. If they receive €20 million for two weeks work, many people would react at the amount paid out for such a short period of work. So contractors extend the time, giving an impression of doing a lot of work at many sites over many months.
WHO WINS WITH THE CHAOS ON THE 125?
Contractors of course. The politicians believe people think the government is doing a lot but it's members may be receiving part of the bribes or ‘benefits’ being distributed.
Who loses? The population: workers spend time queuing rather than working, small trucks transporting our goods are delayed and in the longer term, tourists, as they are not used to having roadworks during the tourist season in Mediterranean destinations.
A 125 ‘UPGRADING?’ NOT AT ALL!
By the early 80s roundabouts like the ones they are building now were common to save fuel.
In the 2000s tests began with modern traffic lights controlled by radars and computers. Radars in each direction measure not only how many cars are coming from hundreds of metres in each direction, they also measure their speed and their mass to determine if they are cars, vans or trucks. A computer calculates in nanoseconds which volume of traffic is higher and gives the green light to vehicles from that direction.
As soon that “traffic mass” passes an imaginary line, the system stops that traffic and gives green to then the new highest mass of traffic.
Since the 90s many countries, for example Sweden, have not been building roads in the way the EN125 is being built.
Instead of one lane in each direction and plenty of space for parking in both directions, they build three lanes, alternating at two to three kilometres with a thick double-wire as a barrier.
This way, if a car is stuck behind a slow-moving truck, the car driver knows that it won’t be long before he will be able to pass the truck.
Parking space is available only at certain spots where the road can easily be widened. Traffic from local properties must drive in one direction only for a hundred metres or so before reaching a U-turn sign.
WHY OLD TECH ON the EN125?
Many say that the contractors make Infraestruturas de Portugal construction projects last for decades. This way they can push for unnecessary bridges, roundabouts and expensive construction.
The EN125 project is very old. Contractors receive no money for developing projects as these are supposed to be made by the slow engineers working in the public service.
Allegedly, any good engineers are warned not to change anything and not to discuss these projects if they ever want to be promoted or get up the ladder in that public institution.
So we, the taxpayers, are giving our money for downgrades, not upgrades. As modern technique would require modern materials (high strength steel for the wires) coming from outside the group of contractors, plus many road-signs telling the driver how long he has to drive until finding a second lane for overtaking, contractors prefer to continue using old style construction techniques that are at least 35 years old.
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Written by Jack Soifer, 2016
Consultant, author of bilingual ALGARVE/ALENTEJO-MY LOVE and PORTUGAL PÓS-TROIKA? ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY?
