Menezes aligns with PS in claims on TGV in Gaia

O president of the House of Gaia, Luís Filipe Menezes (PSD/CDS-PP/IL), pointed out today at the executive meeting the alignment with the opposition PS in the claim for compensation related to the construction of the high speed station in Santo Ovid.

“ This time, whether we or the largest party of the opposition, are in a situation to try to alleviate the damage, that is, that the State seeks to compensate Gaia with a set of decisions that will reduce the damage that we will necessarily have,” said the mayor today at the executive public meeting.

In question is the construction of Gaia’s high-speed station in Santo Ovid, and among several issues, Menezes stressed “the proximity road interface, even further along a large metro station”, an issue that “is not safeguarded” in the specifications of the work.

This is a claim from the executive and also the PS/Gaia that, according to Menezes, will be taken to a meeting with the Minister of Infrastructure, Miguel Pinto Luz, who will come to Gaia “next week”.

“We will publicly confront him with some of these issues, others were raised by the Socialist Party, others were raised by us, we will confront him and try to explain it to the Gaienses,” Menezes said.

The executive requires “financial support for the maintenance/restructuring of the surrounding roads for five years”, the “project and construction near a road terminal for light vehicles and buses”, the “funding for the construction of VL1 – Canidelo – Rotunda Edgar Cardoso; VL3 – Litoral da Madalena / Valadares – Santo Ovidí; and VL10 – Ponte do Freixo – Nó da A1 / Vila D’ Este” and the “support for the study and financing of the installation of metrobus or urban cable car between Avintes and the Metro Station D. João II”.

Last week, the PS/Gaia, claiming that “Gaia has to have a high-speed station, under penalty of becoming a suburb of Porto”, demanded the “funding of the Government of the accesses to the road board” of the new road bridge over the Douro river, as well as the signature between the municipality, the Government, the Infrastructures of Portugal (IP) and the concessionaire responsible for the construction of the line (AVAN) a “contract of minimization of impacts” and a “plan of emergency accesses to the Hospital de Gaia, agreed with ULS Gaia/Espinho and with INEM”.

The socialists also want to “guarantee the intermodal terminal” in the station area and “direct link between station D. João II of the Metro and the high-speed station”, as well as the construction of a “road tunnel between EN 222 and Avenida da República, taking advantage of the excavation of the station” and the “reinforcement of the financing of the public transport offer during the years of work”.

Today, the association Frente Civica warned that “it has already played too much” with the work of the high speed line in Vila Nova de Gaia, urging the Government to enforce the concession contract, which provides station in Santo Ovid.

“The Civic Front will be vigilant and I hope that all the Portuguese are vigilant, because it has played too much with this work and has already been lost too much time, precisely because of the hesitations of the government and unhealthy proximity with the interests of the dealer,” Lusa João Paulo Batalha, vice president of the association of defense of causes of public interest, on the first public-private partnership (PPP) of the high-speed line Porto-Lisboa, which provides Gaia station in Santo Ovido, but the consortium has already tried to change and against which Menezes has already spoken.

For the vice president of the Civic Front, “not realizing that the concern about the impacts of construction in the center of Gaia is perfectly legitimate”, the House must address it “to the consortium that is doing the work”, and not “press the government to do the favor that Mota-Engil wanted it to do, which is to change the nature of the contract and the work after it has been awarded”.