Portugal submitted to Spain a proposal for a bridge corridor between Algarve and Andalusia, within the scope of the PRR – Observer
The Algarve’s Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR) handed over to the Spanish entities the proposal for the corridor for the construction of the bridge between Alcoutim (Algarve) and Sanlúcar de Guadiana (Spain), a project financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan.
“This is a proposal, agreed between the municipalities on both sides of the border, to the definition of the guideline associated with a corridor that allows the construction of the international road bridge within the funding of nine million euros, provided for by the Government in the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) ”, said the president of CCDR / Algarve to Lusa.
According to José Apolinário, the document for the construction of the road bridge between the Algarve and Andalusia was presented on Wednesday to the Spanish entities of the Diputación de Huelva, Junta de Andalucia and to the sub-delegate of the Spanish Government in Huelva, “in the sense to obtain cooperation for the technical solutions of the project”.
We are talking about geological and geotechnical studies, topographic survey, weighing up all points of environmental and heritage nature on both sides of the border and protecting the navigability of vessels to the municipality of Mértola [no distrito de Beja]”, advanced.
According to the president of CCDR / Algarve, a regional entity that technically supports and monitors the work within the scope of the PRR, “these are preliminary studies and before moving on to the environmental impact study” of the proposed corridor north of Alcoutim and Sanlúcar of Guadiana.
According to the official, as Portuguese and Spanish entities, they agreed to meet monthly to discuss the project’s developments, “essential for the development of the two border regions and that it is environmentally sustainable”.
The road bridge, which will reduce the connection between Alcoutim and Sanlúcar de Guadiana by around 70 kilometers, is a structure claimed for over two decades by the populations on both sides of the border.
According to the contract signed under the PRR between the Recover Portugal Mission Structure, the CCDR / Algarve and the municipality of Alcoutim, the tender for the execution project must be launched in the first quarter of 2022, contracting the contract by the third quarter of 2024 and completion of the work by 2026.
The Portuguese PRR, which erected the Commission’s ‘green light’ on 13 June and was formally approved by the Ecofin Council exactly one month later, has a global value of 16.6 billion euros, namely 13.9 billion euros in non-repayable grants and €2.7 billion for soft loans.
at stake is the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, valued at 672.5 billion euros (at 2018 prices) and central element of the €750 billion fund approved by European leaders in July 2020 for the economic recovery of the EU from the crisis provoked by the Covid-19 pandemic.