4,6 million euros is how much the requalification of the Segunda Circular will cost - just new sidewalk and new signaling. In the drawer is ambitious project of transforming the Segunda Circular into a tree-lined boulevard integrated in the city.
A boulevard with trees in the central reservation, fewer traffic lanes and speed reduction to 60 km/h (although the maximum allowed speed is 80 km/h, on average people drive at less than 50 km/h there), the creation of sidewalks in some areas and better conditions for public transport. The idea at the time was to reduce through-traffic on the Segunda Circular, directing it to the CRIL and the Eixo N-S, also reducing congestion and pollution in the city.
In this new requalification project for the Segunda Circular - which the City Hall says is a temporary intervention and necessary until the definitive solution is found - none of the ideas from the initial plan were contemplated, nor the already mentioned idea of creating BUS lanes there.
It's 4.6 million euros for 10 km that 110,000 cars pass over every day. It is a large investment in automobile infrastructure and shows that the municipality is paying attention to the various forms of mobility.
The project to convert the Segunda Circular into a green boulevard was presented in 2016 and went through a public consultation process. The first phase of the work was even started but a alleged conflict of interest the fact that a designer is also a manufacturer and marketer of the material used in a project led the Chamber to suspend it and also to cancel the international public tender for the 2nd phase.
The green boulevard has remained in the drawer ever since.
