Docapesca has resumed work on fixing the crumbling harbour wall in Faro in a €93,000 project that now is expected to take until at least January 2018.
The first phase was to repair a crack in the support wall, which was completed on June 30th after the council threatened hell and high water if the company did not make an effort in repairing what rapidly was turning into a dangerous eyesore.
Docapesca said that the second phase consists of the fixing the northern wall between the Hotel Eva and the Fire station, work that finally began in earnest on September 25th.
The project involves removing the old stone cladding over a 260 metre length and strengthening the area with reinforced concrete before replacing the stone.
One mitigating factor is that the work can only be done when the tide is out. The summertime halt to the project was decided in conjunction with Faro council, the Clube Naval de Faro and the Port authority, apparently so as to "minimise the impacts of the work during the summer period."
Faro mayor, Rogério Bacalhau, was driven close to his wit’s end over the failure of Docapsca to start these repairs before the pedestrian street area collapsed into the void being carved out by the action of the tide.
Rogério Bacalhau wrote to Docapesca in the autumn of 2016 but the state-run entity said that its men would get around to doing the repair work as and when there was an investor for the planned, but by no means certain, marina development the far side of the railway line.
This response was designed to delay the repair work for several years but local press shamed Docapesca into action with its directors saying in October 2016 that the operation will start ‘next year’ and that 'the work had been scheduled,' although they were unable to supply a start date.
Bacalhau could do little else but fire off increasingly terse letters, commenting that "the harbour is silted up and at low tide the smell is nauseating, the waterproofing mosaics are falling off and causing dangerous water infiltration underground with consequent instability. There already have been several collapses in the surrounding pavements,” and referring to the area as “a picture of neglect for those who live or visit Faro.”
Finally, and long overdue, the stop-start work programme progresses to a January 2018 conclusion.