At long last one of the Algarve’s mayors has had the cojones to point out that the Algarve public has been duped over the tolls and the EN125 redevelopment.
Loulé mayor Vítor Aleixo accused Estradas de Portugal of cheating the Algarve “with the announcement that the redevelopment of the EN125 would be resumed, since the work as scheduled will not benefit the region.”
Aleixo is concerned that many of the EN125 improvements have been dropped as has anything sensible along the 50 kilometers of road between Olhão and Vila Real de Santo António, yet the budget available is a substantial €929 million that the company will spend on the EN125 roadworks and on the Via do Infante over the next 10 years.
"At the very least the company should make known the 'opaque' Public Private Partnership contract” said Vítor Aleixo who wants the tolls scrapped on the Via do Infante as he considered that the State has failed in its commitment to the region.
"I have no doubt that the Algarve and the economic partners in the region have been fooled by this announcement," said the mayor of Loulé, at a press conference.
“What would be decent of the Government would be the immediate abolition of tolls on the Via do Infante, since the counterpart announced was for the full redevelopment and repair of the EN125, which clearly is not going to happen."
"The renegotiation of the partnership agreement has caused a drastic reduction in the planned EN125 works. At the end of these roadworks there was meant to be a safe route. We now know that this will not happen, after the recent visit by the the president of Estradas de Portugal. Thus there is a breach of the undertaking between the Portuguese State and the citizens of the Algarve," added the mayor.
Vítor Aleixo also said, "the question that arises at this point is how much of that money is going to pay compensation to the concessionaire," and he considers the business model associated with these works as obscure.
Even after this renegotiation, €929 million will still be shelled out. What we do not know is how much will be spent on the EN125 and how much on the Via do Infante. These matters can not remain unclear," added the mayor.
“Algarvians have every right to know what is going to pay for what. The question that arises at this point is how much of that money is to pay compensation to the concessionaire, who now is not going to complete the work on the EN125 as initially planned. "
Another issue raised by Aleixo is the reduction in the actual work on the EN125, 'Many of the interventions initially planned simply will not be made, as in the case of EN 396 between Loulé and Quarteira. Even in the section between Olhão and VRSA we do not know if the construction will ever be be done as per the initial project plan.”
"One thing I can assure you: the mayors have these projects in view and we be very attentive to see if the roadworks that are done meet the initial project specification," said Aleixo, echoing what many mayors and one Tourism Board chief think but do not say for fear of reprisals.
As Aleixo points out, the Algarve has been had.
Tolls were put in place and the agreement was that the EN 125 was upgraded. One happened, the other did not, and the current mish-mash of planned EN 125 improvements do not represent the sort of grown up project plan necessary to bring the road up to its full status as an alternative to the Via do Infante.