After a meeting in the Metropolitan Council of Porto, it was declared that the solution for the Road of Circunvalação's requalification plan "may go through community funds", more precisely, the new framework of European funds PT2030
Rui Moreira, Mayor of Porto, recalled that "as part of decentralization, Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) spoke with the municipalities that have the Circunvalação, but to pass this competence had to come some check".
According to the news advanced by Porto, based on quotes made by Lusa, the president says that "the amount he wanted to send was a few tens of thousands of euros", recalling that "it was not due to negligence of the municipalities" that the plan, dated 2017, did not move forward.
Eduardo VÃtor Rodrigues, president of the Council, disclosed that the new model "is to be a road mainly for pedestrians, where cars pass in a very regulated way", and the intention of the Metropolitan Area of Porto (AMP) is, through "some form of funding", to requalify the road that crosses the municipalities of Porto, Matosinhos, Maia and Gondomar. According to the same source, the mayor suggests that "if, for some reason, there is some money here on the PRR or PT2020 it will be welcome.
Mentioned at the same meeting, was also the "old claim" regarding the "truck traffic on the Via de Cintura Interna (VCI) and the toll gantries on the A4 and A41 highways. "If we have an agenda - and we all have an agenda - of decarbonization, it is not reasonable that we are making all this investment in terms of decarbonization and, at the same time, continue to have this drama installed every day, at all hours, on the VCI," stresses Rui Moreira.
Nevertheless, the governor states that "it is not only on the VCI" that the situation happens, but equally "in the north and south approaches to the city of Porto, and in all crossings. "The port of Leixões has a dedicated lane," which "is not used anymore exactly because there is a problem in the placement of gantries and a problem with tolls," he recalls.
Rui Moreira also recalled that the Port, Maia and Matosinhos and the IP "had a series of meetings" on the topic of changing the toll gantries, which "did not go ahead" because the municipality of Matosinhos was "not interested" in the topic.