Environmental watchdog Quercus wants the existing bridge to Faro Island to be repaired and refurbished, and the establishement of a smaller parking area than the one planned by Faro council.
To this end, and to the frustration of the local council which wants to spend over €3 million on a shiny new bridge and car parking area to encourage tourists, Quercus has filed a complaint with the European Commission against the Portuguese State because of the council’s decision.
Quercus says that its complaint relates to the car park and new bridge plan encroaching into various areas of specially protected land in a Site of Community Importance in the Ria Formosa area. The affetced zone also is a Special Protection Area for Birds, an area which is protected by national law within the Ria Formosa Natural Park, and it comes under the Ria Formosa Ramsar protected area.
The detailed complaint also asks the European Commission immediately to suspend the planned EC co-funding of the project until a final decision is made.
Faro mayor, Rogerio Bacalhau, recently outlined the construction of a new bridge on the site of the current one, but still with a single lane for traffic. A larger car park would be built on the island and a bicycle lane established but the traffic problem would not be solved.
Currently, in the tourism season, there are queues of frustrated drivers trying to get onto Faro Island but remain largely stationary as they wait for the traffic lights controlling the flow of vehicles. Cars get jammed on the island as car parking space is limited and the queue to leave, often without stopping as there is nowhere to park, meets the queue to get in - head on.
The budget for this new bridge, that does nothing to solve the traffic problem apart from affording a larger parking area, is €3.65 million which has been criticised as being around double what would be needed to build a perfectly fine bridge but without embellishments or backhanders.
Quercus says that repairing the current bridge is the more sensible option, especially as the proposed new bridge, despite being wider, will still only have one lane for vehicles in and out, still controlled by traffic lights.
Faro council wants to build something fancy with a wavy design along its length with little regard for the cost as someone else is picking up the lion's share of the bill, the good old EC.
The implementation of this project "includes the widening of the existing circulation, with the consequent destruction of an area of marshland by the construction of a car park and two landfill areas during the construction phase, which involves the destruction of a priority Coastal Lagoon habitat," explain the environmentalists in a well-reasoned report.
Quercus suggests that ideally the current bridge could be restored and restricted to pedestrians, bicyclists and goods deliveries, as well as emergency vehicles access.
So, is it to be a new bridge - still with one lane but with a bigger car parking facility, or a recuperated old bridge with the current one lane..? The jury is out.
