The Lisbon General Drainage Plan (PGDL) has been pointed out, since two decades agoas an important work to face floods in the capital, but the major catastrophes, namely the construction of tunnels, only started this year.

“We don’t prevent floods. We have to be prepared for them.“, said, in October 2002, the then deputy mayor of Lisbon, António Carmona Rodrigues (independent, supported by the PSD), referring that the municipality was preparing a plan to minimize the effects of the floods in the capital.

Between 2002 and this year, precisely two decades ago, the Lisbon municipality had six mayors — Pedro Santana Lopes (PSD), António Carmona Rodrigues (independent, supported by PSD), Marina Ferreira (PSD), António Costa (PS), Fernando Medina (PS) and Carlos Moedas (PSD) –, always alternating between PSD and PS, but with the socialists ruling for 14 of the last 20 years.

In February 2006, while mayor of Lisbon, Carmona Rodrigues announced the elaboration of a drainage plan, to improve the management of the sewage networks and minimize problems such as flooding and fueland which would be the first general sanitation plan for the capital in the last 40 years, following the studies by Arantes e Oliveira, in 1941, and Pedro Celestino da Costa, in 1955.

In 2008, under the presidency of António Costa (PS), the Lisbon Chamber began to discuss a drainage plan, with a study that pointed to the construction of four large reservoirs and a tunnel between Almirante Reis and Santa Apolónia, classifying as “priority” the complications in the Alcântara area, an area of ​​the city particularly expected by the floods.

In October 2010, after the occurrence of floods in the city, the PSD accused the socialist António Costa of “not considering the sanitation works in Lisbon a priority” and followed the “urgent” implementation of the General Drainage Plan, recalling that the same was ordered in 2006, when the autarchy was led by the PSDand the elaboration was concluded in 2008.

At that time, António Costa justified the delay in implementing the drainage plan with the lack of conditions of the council to ensure the investment of 160 million euros.

Three years later, in 2013, at the time of the campaign for that year’s municipal elections, the socialist said that it was “necessary to execute” the General Drainage Plan, “not so much because of the floods” — which the mayor considered not to have caused “serious problems” in recent years — but for the “greener and more efficient management” of water.

After being re-elected as mayor in 2014, António Costa tried out the Cohesion Fund to finance the drainage plan, which would involve an investment of 160 million euros. That same year, in October, there were floods in the city and, in response to opposition criticism, the socialist said: “The drainage plan does not make these situations disappear. The solution does not exist🇧🇷

In July 2015, with Fernando Medina (PS) as mayor, the Lisbon General Drainage Plan 2016-2030 was presented, with the aim of building, by 2019, two tunnels, one between Santa Apolónia and Monsanto and another between Chelas and the Beatus, to fight floods in the cityin an investment of 170 million euros.

After discussing how to finance the work without funds from the European Union, changing the investment and launching public tenders for the implementation of the drainage plan, the assisted council, in 2017, registered a subsidy of 100 million euros with of the European Investment Bank (EIB), the first of a total of 250 million euros.

Engineer José Silva Ferreira, project coordinator for the Lisbon drainage plan, said in February 2019 that the works should start in the first half of 2020and, in September 2019, estimated that the tunnels between Monsanto and Santa Apolónia and between Chelas and Beato should be completed by 2024.

In December 2020, the Lisbon City Council took over the award of the construction contract for the two tunnels, worth around 133 million euros.

After the 2021 municipal elections, in which Carlos Moedas (PS) won the presidency of the Lisbon Chamber, the municipal executive began to request a declaration of public utility from the Government, “urgently“, the expropriation of properties and the constitution of administrative services, for the implementation of the General Drainage Plan 2016-2030.

In July this year, the municipality made it possible to contract, with the EIB, a loan of up to 90 million euros, which will be the last installment of a framework loan of 250 million euros.

later, the council informed that the works for the construction of the two tunnels should begin in September, in the Campolide area, without indicating concrete data, but anticipating the conditioning in transit.

The floods recorded on Wednesday night in the city of Lisbon, particularly in the areas of Alcântara, Baixa, Campo Grande, Campo Pequeno and Benfica, highlighted the importance of execution of the drainage planwith the mayor, Carlos Moedas, promising the construction of the two tunnels by 2025, considering that, if the contract had already been carried out, the reported flood situations would not have occurred.

With the 2016-2030 execution period and a total investment of around 250 million euros, the Lisbon General Drainage Plan (PGDL) is “the invisible work” which will protect the city from the impacts of climate change, mainly to prevent flooding and flooding; allow the reuse of water to feed and reinforce the irrigation network of green spaces, street washing and firefighting networks; and lower the drinking water bill.

Considered the largest municipal work ever carried out by the Lisbon City Council, the PGDL foresees the construction of two large drainage tunnels for the transfer of basins, in a project that will cost “around 133 million euros” and which is expected to be completed in early 2025.

One of the tunnels starts in Campolide (at Quinta José Pinto) and exits in Santa Apolónia, with a length of about five kilometres, and another will be built from Beato, on Avenida Infante D. Henrique (near Rua do Açúcar), to Chelas (near the Convent of Chelas), with an extension of one kilometer.

This work will have seven shipyards – Campolide, Avenida da Liberdade, Rua de Santa Marta/Barata Salgueiro, Avenida Almirante Reis/Rua Antero de Quental, Santa Apolónia, Chelas and Beato – and “will present surface accommodations“, warned the municipality, stating that several ways to mitigate the impacts are being persistent.

“Given the complexity, extension and nature of the work, the possible conditions were guaranteed in terms of accommodation, maintaining pedestrian circuits, accessibility, smooth mobility, as well as mitigating the impacts on city traffic, in particular ensuring operating conditions for public transport (in close connection with Carris), emergency and rescue corridors (in close connection with the Municipal Police)”, he assured.

Regarding the constraints for residents, the council tried to reduce “to the minimum possible” the removal of parking spaces, seeking to ensure access to garages and maintenance of spaces on the public road, but is still studying other parking spaces, in conjunction with the municipal company EMEL.

As for merchants and shopkeepers in the subject areas, they are being considered for negotiations that may go through the “ipublic road occupancy tax rulingexemptions from other municipal fees and indemnity control for proven loss of revenue directly associated with the presence of the shipyard”.

This work is being carried out in connection with the Union of Commerce and Services Associations (UACS) and the Association of Hotels, Restaurants and Similar Services of Portugal (AHRESP).

Questioned about the impacts of the passage on surface buildings, including residential buildings, the Lisbon Chamber, chaired by Carlos Moedas (PSD), explained that the tunneling machine operates at an average depth of 30 to 40 meters and “no damage is anticipated to any property🇧🇷 These are monitored by the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC).

In addition, the PGDL project team, led by engineer Silva Ferreira (who was also the municipal coordinator of the Tunnel do Marquês work), promoted visits “to around 3,900 housing units”, in an extension of 30 meters on each side of the building. from the axis of each tunnel.

The construction of the two tunnels will be carried out with the H2OLisboa tunneling machine, made in China, which is 130 meters long and “advances about 10 meters a day”, according to information available on the “site”. https://planodrenagem.lisboa.pt/🇧🇷