Port House introduces changes to the Junqueiro Street project

O executive of the House of Porto today presented a new proposal for the improvement project of Rua de Guerra Junqueiro, an artery that had already been the subject of a public contest for works in March that had been contested.

The presentation was made today to the council members at the private meeting of the municipal executive.

On the margin, in statements to journalists, the mayor, Pedro Duarte, explained that they presented a new proposal, after having heard “all actors” and considered that the case of this street, in Campo Alegre, is the example of how those who run a city have to manage several “conflict interests”.

“ I think that now we have achieved a very interesting equilibrium situation, which has generally deserved agreement”, considered the mayor, noting that “there are no optimal and perfect solutions” and that not all parties will always agree.

After listing some of the introductions introduced to the initial project, Pedro Duarte explained that the services are still realizing whether a new public tender will be needed.

For the PS, Manuel Pizarro greeted the executive for having reviewed the project and showed that “it is always possible to improve things when they are still in progress”.

According to the presentation that was made to the councillors, and the one that Lusa had access to, an adjustment was made in the section between the Rua Soares de Passos and the Rua João Martins Branco through the elimination of 10 parking spaces, the “removal of the advance of the walk planned to the north at the intersection with Soares de Passos”, the realignment of the lancil of the spring walk, the narrow traffic routes in Soares de Passos and the elimination of the parking bay on this street.

Through these changes, the “maintenance of existing trees and planting of two new copies” are guaranteed in this section, the continuity of motor vehicle traffic routes, the creation of a 2.5-metre wide bidirectional cycle path, bikeway protection range and maintenance of the two traffic directions in Soares de Passos.

“ Taking advantage of the review of the project and the decision of the Municipal Department of Mobility to give up the parking on the nascent side, it was possible to increase the area of the pedestrian route to the long of Rua de Guerra Junqueiro, significantly improving the conditions of pedestrian mobility ", can be read in the presentation.

In a comparative table between the previous project and the project presented today, the document shows that the pedestrian area increased from 5,641 square meters to 6,268 square meters, and the road area decreased from 7,394 to 6,776 square meters.

In terms of parking spaces, there will be less 54 common parking spaces, minus three seats allocated to ‘kiss and drive’, but four more places for loading and unloading. The seats for the resident purse will remain at 23.

On October 13, Pedro Duarte had already revealed that the municipality had suspended the award of the concession of this street, whose public tender was launched in March, and that it was reassessing the project.

In March, a group of education officers from several schools on this street – which links Campo Alegre Street to Avenida da Boavista – launched a petition to ask the municipality to review the project for the artery and suppress one of the traffic routes and one of the existing parking lines.

It also called for the construction of a bi-directional bikeway along the entire stretch of the street, the introduction of green and living areas, the implementation of specific zones for drivers to stop their cars to leave their children in schools and the inclusion of speed radars.

In June, the petition “War Junqueiro Mais Alegre” was taken to the Municipal Assembly and a report made showed that the project to improve the municipality did not allow the implementation of a cycle path.

“ Considering the Municipal Master Plan [PDM] and the size of the parking bags provided in the project, the width of the proposed profile does not have the capacity to implement the bike path”, which was one of the petitioners' demands, could be read in the report, drafted by the Municipal Support Division to the Municipal Assembly (AM).

At the time, in AM, the vice president of the municipality, Catarina Araújo, explained that the project was inherited from the former executive, that discarding it would mean that the work would not be done in the next four years, but that “this is not the project that fully responds to the legitimate fears of the petition” he has common points with what is requested by the petitioners.