Beja and Alverca are on the list of possible locations for Lisbon’s new airport following proposals from the Independent Technical Commission (CTI), responsible for strategic environmental assessment, to analyze them, one of the CTI coordinators told Lusa.
“We are going to analyze other options, which in the meantime have also come to us in the form of proposals. […] and the decision of the Council of Ministers stipulated that we decided what other proposals we would analyze, and therefore we will also analyze at least more Alverca and more Beja, which have already come to us,” Lusa, Professor Rosario Macario, part of CTI, who will conduct a strategic environmental assessment of the airport expansion in the Lisbon area.
The General Coordinator of CTI is Prof. Rosario Partidario, as well as a group of six technical coordinators, including Prof. Rosario Macario University of Transportation Systems Planning and Operations, who was responsible for coordinating the area of airport planning.
CTI, created late last year and located at the National Building Laboratory (LNEC) in Lisbon, is currently listening to “all actors relevant to the subject” to arrive at a set of criteria that “will serve to analyze various hypotheses”, Rosario Macario explained.
“Right now we are open to receiving proposals from organizations or groups interested in putting forward proposals for development, which we will analyze. Alternatives that will later be evaluated in more detail,” emphasized Professor Instituto Superior Técnico (IST).
A Council of Ministers resolution adopted last year determined the composition of the CTI to analyze the five hypotheses for the Lisbon airport solution (Portela + Montijo, Montijo + Portela, Alcochete, Portela + Santarem, Santarem), but on the condition that other options can be added to them. .
According to the technical coordinator, in the next few weeks, supporters of all alternatives will present in detail the projects of the CTI and the Control Commission, which will be headed by engineer Carlos Mineiro Aires.
“By the end of March, we will carry out the first assessment, so the first stage will end in April, and there will be no more proposals from April,” said Rosario Macario.
Reports with CTI findings must be closed by November, at which time they enter the public comment phase.
When asked if it makes sense to have a Lisbon airport far from the city, as is the case with Santarém or Beja, for example, which are more than 80 kilometers away, the university professor pointed out that physical distance is not the most important factor. .
“The most important thing is always availability in time and alternatives to get to the city from the airport. Obviously far from desirable, but distance in time is, let’s say, the main aspect, and it depends on the offer that exists, the modes of transport and travel solutions,” he stressed.
According to Rosario Macario, any of the hypotheses “implies a rethinking of accessibility.”
Among other factors to consider in the analysis, he listed the cost of infrastructure, the impacts created, and the potential for expansion.
“We are working on a 50-year horizon, and in 50 years a lot will change, technology will change, a lot will change, and therefore cost is certainly an important factor, but not the only one,” he said.
Asked if the possibility of expansion was a factor that ruled out Montijo, Rosario Macario said it was a place that “has limited options at the moment” but “it all depends on what can be done”, not to the exclusion of . “It is not excluded and not chosen,” he stressed.
If it is necessary to build an airport from scratch, according to the expert, from the moment the decision is made until the moment when the new airport can be fully put into operation, “ten, twelve years, maybe a little more” may pass. a little more.”
“If we look at cases of recent airport development, we have cases where they were developed in eight years, in ten years, we have others that took 18 and 20 years, so it all depends on whether there are problems of a contractual nature. expropriation character,” he warned.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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