Ensuring safety is key goal of 26 million-Euro investment in Furnas-Povoação road, says Vasco Cordeiro
The President of the Government stated today that the decision to invest more than 26 million Euros in the construction of the Furnas-Povoação road was based on the improvement of traffic safety conditions, also highlighting the contribution of this work to an ever-greater economic development of this municipality and the island of São Miguel.
"We are talking about an investment that, globally, exceeds 26 million Euros and that took decisive steps today. The opening notice of the public tender for the construction of this first phase - bypass road to the parish of Furnas was sent today for publication. The public tender for the development of the second phase of this project was also sent today for publication,” added Vasco Cordeiro.
According to him, this is, therefore, a project that was decided with the “main concern of guaranteeing safety,” namely at the level of pedestrian mobility in Furnas, seeing that the bypass road will divert part of the traffic that heads from the centre of the parish to Povoação/Ribeira Quente.
In addition, this work will substantially increase the safety of road traffic, taking into account the profile planned for the two phases of the intervention, mentioned the President of the Government. In this regard, he stressed that the environmental issue was another concern that was considered in the decision to proceed with this investment.
From this standpoint, this work was subject to an environmental impact assessment, despite not being mandatory, highlighted Vasco Cordeiro, who also emphasised the effects associated with this investment, namely in terms of creating conditions for economic development in tourism, fisheries and agriculture.
In his speech, the President of the Government also noted that this is not the only intervention in the Povoação road network, a municipality where works amounting to three million Euros have been carried out since the beginning of the current term. This is the case of the first phase of the intervention in the slopes of the access road to Ribeira Quente and the upgrading of the east entrance to Povoação.
These three million Euros add up to the approximately five million-Euro budget of the second phase of the consolidation of the Furnas-Ribeira Quente road, which is currently in the public tender launch phase.
The President of the Government recalled that the Region, under the current Community Support Framework, was faced with the fact that investments in the road network were excluded from Community support. Nevertheless, it has managed to receive an allocation of around 16 million Euros to offset the costs of remoteness, having been distributed by works carried out on all islands.
“But these 16 million euros did not exhaust investment in this road network component. Since 2013, public investment in the regional road network has amounted to a total of 80 million Euros, despite the constraint in terms of eligibility for Community funds,” said Vasco Cordeiro, while ensuring that "this matter will be under discussion" in the context of the next multiannual financial framework.
The President of the Government also guaranteed that the Government has “made a significant effort” in terms of public investment in various areas. In this regard, he pointed out that the Government has invested an amount of approximately 380 million Euros in public works since 2013, besides the works amounting to more than 100 million Euros that are currently taking place on various islands.
“We have planned works that amount to almost 610 million Euros, including, of course, the 300 million Euro works for the recovery from the damage caused by Hurricane Lorenzo,” stressed Vasco Cordeiro.
The investment of more than 26 million Euros in the improvement of the Furnas-Povoação accessibility includes the construction of the bypass road to Furnas, to the north, with similar characteristics to an expressway, corresponding to the first phase of this intervention.
The second phase of this work consists of the intervention to be carried out in the road between Furnas and Lomba do Cavaleiro, including the redevelopment of the road layout, the widening of lane width, the elimination of several winding areas and the introduction of a third lane throughout most of the road.