The Metrobus will be ready by August, and the first hydrogen car will arrive in Porto at the end of September.

The deadline for completing the design and construction of Porto’s Metrobus is August 23, and the first hydrogen vehicle should arrive between late September and early October, Metro do Porto said.

In a written response sent to the working group of the Municipal Assembly of Porto, which oversees investments in public transport, to which Lusa had access this Monday, the president of the board of directors of Metro do Porto, Tiago Braga, indicates that the work of the metrobus that will connect the Casa da Música with the Praça do Império, “the deadline is August 23, 2024,” with 30 days already included for testing all systems.

Tiago Braga explains that the temporary difference between the originally scheduled date is due to changes in the preliminary design, the development of studies and a change in the planned construction phase in order to “comply with the obligation imposed by the municipality to always maintain two traffic routes.” a functioning bus station in every direction on Avenida da Boavista.”

According to Metro, the contract initially specified the use of one lane in each direction and two center lanes, leaving one lane open for traffic in each direction.

“Therefore, for Avenida da Boavista, only four phases were included for the work,” he says, noting that the need, by decision of the municipality, to provide two roads in each direction led to the reformulation.

This made it impossible to occupy the central part of the avenue, reduced the area of ​​the construction site and made it difficult to carry out work on various infrastructures, says Thiago Braga.

“Given the need to provide road space for vehicular traffic, the space available for pedestrian traffic was also reduced and more than 10 separate occupation phases had to be created, which, due to the complexity of implementation and normal construction situations, were also extended for a time,” he says.

Tiago Braga also points out that Águas e Energia do Porto has called, “given the high level of deterioration of its infrastructure,” to carry out “large-scale” work on the streets of Rua de João Grave and Pinheiro Manso, “which is precisely the area with the highest traffic flow.” .

“A project of this scale, coupled with the volume of water infrastructure work carried out, the amount of which has already been completed amounting to approximately 2.5 million euros, is bound to have a significant impact on the level of accessibility and comfort of those living and circulating in the intervention area, especially when they are carried out in in the context of a large spatial conditionality, as was the case in this case,” he notes.

Thiago Braga also states that the project is “strongly driven by the limited space available.”

“The work carried out went far beyond the implementation of a new transport typology, and also served as an infrastructural rehabilitation of one of the most important arteries of the city of Porto,” he adds.

When asked when the surrounding materials will be delivered, Thiago Braga explained that the first of 12 machines will arrive between the end of September and the beginning of October, “and it is still expected that the machines needed to operate the first phase of the BRT will be delivered by the end of this year.” .

The president of the metro’s board of directors also points out that it is planned that the Sociedade de Transportes Coletivos do Porto (STCP) will start operating a “metrobus” with electric buses “during the transition period that is necessary after the completion of the canal.” BRT agreement.”