A technical committee looking into capacity expansion at Lisbon Airport this Thursday announced nine possible options for a new airport, including five identified by the government, as well as Portela+Alcochete, Portela+Pegões, Rio Frio+Poceirão and Pegões.
The list of options that move to the next stages was announced by Rosario Partidario, General Coordinator of the Independent Technical Commission (CTI), in a presentation taking place in Lisbon on the results of the activities carried out in the first stage of the Strategic Environmental Assessment of increasing the capacity of airports in the Lisbon region.
Rosario Partidario explained that the government had proposed five options: Portela + Montijo; Montijo + Portela; hook; Portela + Santarem; Santarém – added the following options: Portela+Alcochete; pegs; Portela + Pegoins; and Rio Frio+Poceirão, for a total of seven locations and nine strategic options.
The five options proposed by the Government must be evaluated by the CTI, so in addition to these, the options Beja, Monte Real (Leiria), Portela + Alcochete and Alverca + Portela were on the table, to which were added eight options on the AeroParticipa Portal (Apostiça, Évora, Ota, Pegões-Vendas Novas, Poceirão, Rio Frio, Sintra and Tancos).
From this list, based on ten scientific and technical criteria, the following options were added to the final list of possible solutions: Humberto Delgado Airport + Alcochete, Humberto Delgado Airport + Pegoins, Pegoins and Rio Frio + Poseiran.
The Portela+Alcochete and Portela+Pegões options will be studied as a final solution, but will also be considered “only ultimately as a transitional option”.
The CTI analysis also concluded that the Pegões “apparently can go up to four lanes, but is in the early stages of training” and despite “conflict with the military” appears to be “solvable”. However, “does not fully meet the proximity criterion.”
As for the Rio Frio, he notes that it is an option “already explored before” that was rejected in the past for environmental reasons and still has conflict with the Campo de Tiro de Alcochete (CTA), a characteristic he shares with Poceirão, which also does not have an extension area.
However, CTI understands that Poseiran is a “potential logistical area and is located 10 km from Rio Frio”, so the hypothesis arose to combine the two options and make them a “mixed solution”.
The CTI list is the result of applying ten scientific and technical feasibility criteria, such as proximity to the center of Lisbon (European average 22 km), presence or absence of existing or planned road and rail infrastructure, and presence of an expansion zone (minimum 1000 ha).
Criteria also included capacity per hour, presence of conflicts with military airspace and, if so, resolve, greater or lesser natural risks (floods, seismic), assessment of the affected population, natural areas and migration corridors, strategic importance for the Air Force and the presence of an Assessment Environmental Impact Statement (EIA) and Environmental Impact Statement (DIA).
According to Rosario Partidario, Beja remained en route because it did not meet the proximity criterion, given that it is better to use the national network of airports, Monte Real, because it does not meet the proximity criterion, or Sintra because it is “restricted in terms of capacity and expansion area” and have conflicts with Portela’s airspace.
According to CTI, Ota’s “historic variant”, which has “already been thoroughly studied, is well positioned in terms of accessibility, but this is its only advantage”, which emphasizes that “it does not have an expansion zone” and “studies show difficulties in terms of in terms of safety, the risk of flooding and the high cost of removing obstacles.
Tanko, on the other hand, “does not meet the proximity criterion and performs extremely important functions in terms of firefighting”, having a strategic function from a military point of view.
For the person in charge, the Alverca+Portela variant was “an extremely creative option” but “with very difficult operating conditions”.
On the other hand, the Apostiça variant “has military conflicts with airspace, namely the Campo de Tiro de Alcochete and with NATO bunkers”, while Évora “does not meet the proximity criterion and does not have an expansion zone”.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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