The political football that is 'the bridge to Faro island' again has been booted into the lap of local mayor Rogério Bacalhau who, after years of dithering, says a new bridge will be built in with costs shared between Faro ratepayers and the government.
Bacalhau said he has reached an agreement with the Ministry of the Environment to push ahead with the construction of a two-lane bridge to the island and that it will be ready in 2018.
"Bearing in mind the lack of funding for this important job, the council is committed to assume 20% of the total cost of around €2.4 million, to which can be added the 30% already guaranteed by Polis Ria Formosa whose job this was meant to be," reads a statement from the council.
The first budget put forward by Bacalhau in May 2014 was for €3 million, a price so extortionate that the country’s leading bridge engineering specialist felt obliged to say that it easily could be done for half this amount.
In 2014 the mayor could not say whether the project, one that always seems to have been on the point of starting, 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 now says 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" but does not hazard a guess at the number of lanes.
The new bridge, the statement said with certainty, 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 current offering is a single lane bridge with awkward and narrow raised footpaths on either side. Traffic lights control the flow of vehicles and spectacular jams are frequent in the summer months.
At this point the council hedges its bets and states that even if the new bridge is in fact an upgrade of the current bridge, rather than a new one, this will still be a lot better han the current arrangement with ‘lower maintenance costs’ for which the council is responsible.
If a new bridge is ever decided on, "this will run to the east of the current one" and should be two lanes, even though this is not specified.
Polis Ria Formosa said it did not have enough time or money to build a new bridge in the past 12 years as it is to be wound up at the end of this year, an excuse used before and invalidated when the Ministry of the Environment agrees to extend the company’s life by further twelve month periods.
Polis did build a new car park this year, near the airport perimeter fence, leaving pedestrians and cyclists a one kilometre journey along a smart new wooden walkway to the start of the bridge at which point the path ends and crossing have to be made in single file alongside slow-moving traffic.
With this new announcement, incurably suspicious readers might imagine that there is a council election coming up which the mayor wishes to win.
A new bridge might be just the thing, after years of delays, U-turns and bureaucratic fumbling, to gain a few votes from an electorate simply relieved that the mayor has made up his mind.
See also: 'Faro Island, a bridge too far...' May 2014 - click below
http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/2195-faro-island-a-bridge-too-far
