The work to renovate the EN125 road, winding across the Algarve through towns and villages now choked with traffic, should be completed "in 2016" - no month given.
This is the promise of Estradas de Portugal which yesterday presented the schedule of works to the Algarve Mayors Group, AMAL.
Work is planned to start this August at the height of the tourist season which will cause maximum disruption but at least it is starting, or part of the original roadworks plan is.
The section between Olhão and Vila Real de Santo António controlled by Estradas de Portugal will begin after the summer season and “the company expects to spend €14m” on this section alone, asccording to António Ramalho, President of Estradas de Portugal, who then gave the proviso that this money is "dependent on the approval of the Court of Auditors and the Government."
The resumption of work after 3 years, "is good news," says Jorge Botelho, president of AMAL, "but only if the timetable is met."
Botelho, who also is mayor of Tavira, says that there "can not be two Algarves" referring to the inequality between east and west in the roadworks programme, but this is exactly what is planned.
The construction of the Olhão bypass, one of the largest and most urgently needed works in the initial project, now will not be built.
"The mayors understand the financial difficulties of the country," said the president of Estradas de Portugal, mentioning the "directness" in which the meeting took place.
As well as Olhão missing out, Luz de Tavira is excluded and another bypass in Albufeira and the upgrading of the section at Boliqueime giving direct access to Vilamoura all are excluded from the plan in what has proved to be a radically scaled down scheme.
Better news for Faro, Almancil and Lagos as the partly constructed link roads will be finished off.
Most of the original €151 million plan, as promised by the government in exchange for councils not bleating about tolls on the Via do Infante, is still shelved including the construction of 69 roundabouts, footpaths and long-awaited cycle paths which boost tourism and save lives.
The road surface between Manta Rota and Cancela Velha which now is severely degraded will just have its holes filled in.
For the section between Boliqueime and Quatro Estradas, some eight kilometers, the plan for six roundabouts has been shelved although it is not known how the building of roundabouts would have helped the EN125 become a suitable alternative to the Via do Infante motorway.
As it stands these projects still are in a muddle with some requiring funding approval, a start date nobody believes and an end date of 2016, at least the Algarve’s mayors seem grateful for what little improvements they are being offered after years of delay.
