The budget to construct the new bridge to Faro Island was set so low that it attracted zero offers from civil engineering companies.
The tender was launched in November 2017 and stipulated that the maximum payable was €2.5 million. After this less than enthusiastic response, the Council has revised the spend, upwards, to €3.5 million and now has even less chance of getting the bridge built.
Rogério Bacalhau, the Mayor of Faro, has no comment as to how the Council issued a tender that was so wildly inaccurate, nor does he have much to say about where the extra €1 million is going to come from.
The Ministry of the Environment explained to Sul Informação that the original 'new bridge project' was prepared early in 2012 by the Polis Litoral Ria Formosa Society and that things have moved on. The economy is better, constructors can pick and choose and materials and labour costs have risen.
The ministry’s position is that the project now can only move ahead when the money is in place, which, as the extra €1 million is not available, lets it off the hook.
Bacalhau is trying to find solutions with the Polis Litoral Ria Formosa Society but. as this ill-formed creation anyway is being wound up at the end of 2018, this may not be as fruitful as he makes out.
Bacalhau’s continued mishandling of the ‘bridge too far’ has becoming the stuff of legend and has given his political opposition ample ammunition with which to attack him.
The mayor’s stand-by tactic at times like these is to say nothing, which is not helpful and certainly doesn't solve the Faro Island bridge problem.
See also: See also: ‘No contractor willing to build Faro Island's new bridge'
