The Alcântara Valley Pedestrian and Bicycle Tunnel is already open but does not connect to anything yet

Photo by Mário Rui André/Lisbon for People

The pedestrian and cycling path of the still incomplete Alcântara Valley Green Corridor is already passable after more than a year of work. The tunnel now open is part of a continuous route that will exist between Campolide and Alcântara and should have been completed since 2017/18, according to the first forecasts advanced when the project was announced by José Sá Fernandes, the councilman responsible for Lisbon's Green Structure.

The tunnel allows the crossing of the railway lineThis is the tunnel through which the Linha de Cintura and Linha do Sul trains pass, as well as the Fertagus trains heading towards Setúbal, among others. This tunnel starts in the already existing Urban Park of Quinta da Bela Flor to Avenida de Ceuta, which is the last phase of intervention of this Green Corridor.

Photographs by Mário Rui André/Lisbon for People

At this point, passing through the tunnel coming from Quinta da Bela Flor, you come to a construction site and with some luck (depending on whether a gate is open or not) you can get through to the Avenida de Ceuta. Then, the route to Alcântara is not easy, since that avenue is rough for pedestrian and cycling mobility. However, it is possible to improvise a route through the not very busy sidewalk, passing next to Casal Ventoso.

O public tender for the last part of the Alcantara Valley Green Corridor was launched in June 2019. The winner was the company Vibrate; o contract amounting to three million euros with the autarchy was signed April 30, 2020 with an execution period of 270 days, plus 365 days for maintenance of green spaces. In theory, the requalification of the Avenida de Ceuta could take place at the same time as the construction of the tunnel, since they are separate projects and not dependent on each other.

Now, more than a year has passed and there is no sign of any work at the site. The Avenida de Ceuta remains the same. In addition to pedestrian and bike paths, it is planned to create a water path in the central separator of that artery. The idea is to reveal on the surface the water that comes out of the Alcântara WWTP properly treated and that is delivered to the river.

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Mário Rui André

Journalist and editor of Lisboa Para Pessoas, a local newspaper about Lisbon and the metropolitan area. I have 30 years living in the capital and 10 years of experience in media, having co-founded Shifter, an independent and reference magazine about technology. I studied advertising and marketing at the Escola Superior de Comunicação Social and, later, journalism and communication at the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra. I write about Lisbon and about cities, mobility and urbanism in general. I follow a more human vision of the public space, and I am for citizenship and transparency on the part of governing bodies.