A mythical 'new bridge' to Faro beach has yet another completion date, this time the council’s mayor has worked out that, if all goes well, the bridge will be open "in the first quarter of 2020."
The comedy show continues as Polis Litoral Ria Formosa Society, a company owned by several western Algarve local councils and the Ministry of the Environment, currently is in liquidation but anyway has launched the public tender for the construction contract for the new bridge.
The work represents an investment of €2.5 million, according to today’s announcement, but will be only 4.7 metres wide to includes two metres of pedestrian walkway. One can deduce that the new bridge, like the current one, is single lane and will offer zero advantages to motorists wishing to spend time on the beach or get to their homes and places of work. It also is hoped that the pedestrian walkway is one strip of two metres width, rather than two of one metre each, which would be dangerous for pedestrians, buggies and wheelchair users to navigate on busy days.
The bridge will be built next to the old one which will be removed when the new one is in operation. The thought of keeping the old bridge as a 'pedestrian only' walkway and usuing the new one as two-lane 'in-out' vehicle access may not fully have been explored.
The public tender has been published in Diário da República and bridge builders have 30 days to submit their bids.
The mayor of Faro, Rogério Bacalhau, admits this is work that was "expected a long time ago" but insists that the new bridge will give "greater security and comfort" to those entering and leaving the island, although he does not explain how this will be achieved.
Bacalhau also hopes that the work will be done quickly as the money already is sorted out. The Court of Auditors last month authorised the council to transfer €561,000 to Polis which allowed "the impasse that was delaying the start of the work," to be unblocked.
The Court of Auditors will have to peruse the chosen contract and may or may not approve the deal.
In August 2017, the Environment Minister announced, correctly as it turned out, that the tender for the new Praia de Faro bridge would be launched "later this year" and, for the mayor, "the important thing is that the competition is running, funding is secured and the work will be carried out, regardless of the start date.”
Faro ratepayers will end up funding 50% of the cost with the Ministry of the Environment funding the balance. The council will be paying for the maintenance of the bridge over its useful life as Polis will be long gone, to the delight of many.
