EMEL's construction of an elevator that will connect Rua dos Lagares, near the Mouraria Innovation Center, to Largo da Graça has begun and, therefore, the Miradouro da Graça, which offers one of the best views over the city of Lisbon, will be conditioned for a year and a half, as reported this Tuesday by the newspaper Público.
The elevator is inserted in the General Plan for Smooth and Assisted Accessibility to the Castle HillIt is divided into two intermediate elevators: one between Rua dos Lagares and Jardim do Caracol da Graça, and the other from this green space to the Miradouro Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, also known as Miradouro da Graça. Altogether, this elevator will make it possible to overcome the steep gradient of the 46-meter-high hill.
The construction work for this new pedestrian mobility equipment will condition the Miradouro da Graça for a year and a half, that is, until December 2022according to EMEL's forecasts. Only an area where the esplanade of a kiosk is located will remain unobstructed, with the view over Lisbon to which we have become accustomed. The white siding is being decorated with a vertical garden in order to minimize the visual impact of the work - a special care because it is, perhaps, a tourist area of the city.
The construction of the elevator between Mouraria and Graça had already begun in 2016, but archaeological excavations that uncovered the the unique rampart, in rammed earth, of the Fernandina Fence suspended the works. An alambor is a defensive structure that consists of thickening the base of a wall, making it difficult for enemies to invade. The alambor of the Fernandina Fence used taipa, a material based on clay and gravel, something that had never before been identified in Portugal. To the PublicEMEL guaranteed that "the alambor has been reburied, lying underground in the condition in which it was found" and that "the project was redesigned in the surrounding area in order to preserve it properly and not to cause any alteration". The adaptation of the project was awarded in 2017 for 21 thousand euros to the Bugio studiothe same studio that designed the General Plan for Soft and Assisted Accessibility to the original Castle Hill in 2009.
As for the works that are now beginning on the ground will cost more than 5.3 million euros and will be carried out by the company Oliveiras S.A., which won the public tender. According to Público, the contract had already been awarded in February of this year, but a legal challenge by one of the bidders delayed the work.
In the original Plan it is foreseen that the second elevator of this set between Mouraria and Graça would be integrated with a new parking lot, in the form of a silo, in Rua dos Lagares, but it is not known if this intention still stands. However, according to Público, the EMEL park on Rua Damasceno Monteiro, which opened in 2017 and has a capacity for 81 spaces, was closed this week. It is located behind the Convento da Graça, which will be reconverted into a five-star hotel by the Sana group, under the Revive program, through which the government seeks to give new life to vacant property by adapting it for tourism purposes. Thus, the closed park will now be used as a construction site and will later serve as a parking lot for guests. However, it remains operational, on the same street a park with 69 spaces, managed between the Parish Council of São Vicente and EMEL, as well as the park in Rua da Verónica.
