Lisbon City Hall revises traffic circle project for Praça do Chile to incorporate bicycle path

Once the Arroios Subway station expansion works, a Chile Square was free for the long-awaited rehabilitation, foreseen in the municipal program A Square in Every Neighborhood. But the original 2015 project is outdated, as Avenida Almirante Reis now has a bike lane along its entire length.

The revision of the project was requested, by direct adjustment of 19,700 euros and with an execution deadline of 15 days, to the same company that had originally designed the traffic circle for the Praça do Chile, for 60 thousand euros, in 2015 - o Paulo Pedrosa, Gabinete de Estudos e Projectos Lda. This was the same office that designed the new Largo do Leão, close to Chile Square and redeveloped in 2017. Largo do Leão and Praça do Chile were designed together, but the latter awaited the completion of the "Santa Engrácia works" of the Arroios Subway. The new contract for the Praça do Chile has only now been published on the Base portal, despite the project's revision work having been done long before, according to Lisboa Para Pessoas.

Future of Chile Square will be a traffic circle

The project reformulated by the company Paulo Pedrosa, Gabinete de Estudos e Projectos Lda altered the traffic circle at Praça do Chile to have two lanes instead of the three initially planned, integrating a unidirectional circular bike lane with entrances/exits next to the central separator, according to Lisboa Para Pessoas. The work, despite having a contract signed on September 22 according to the Base portal, was executed even before the summer. When the new Chile Square was designed in 2015, the City Council did not plan to include a bike path along the entire length of Avenida Almirante Reis; one of the first intentions was to do it only between the Banco de Portugal block and the Martim Moniz Square. A bike path along the entire length of Avenida Almirante Reis was presented in the intervention programme pop-up of the city of Lisbon. At the time, the idea was to build it all the way to Areeiro, but the local authority changed its plans and built the infrastructure only up to Alameda.

According to the program A Square in Every Neighborhoodfor Plaza de Chile had been planned since 2015 a traffic circle with three traffic lanes that allows the redistribution of traffic between Avenida Almirante Reis, Rua Morais Soares and Rua António Pereira Carrilhothat comes down from Largo do Leão. It is intended that Chile Square will be the "gateway to commercial axis of Morais Soares Street, that is intended to revitalize and requalify". also. With the new traffic circle, the goal is to widen sidewalks and improve pedestrian circulation "both in the square and in the surrounding road structure". For the middle of the traffic circle was designed an area of water flow and a green area. Around the traffic circle a corridor was planned with shrubs, trees and benches that promote the stay and enjoyment of the square by people.

Back to Chile Square. In the program A Square in Every Neighborhood is also mentioned the intention to analyze with Carris "the revitalization of the tramway, allowing the connection of the Alto de São João stop to the Largo do Leão, connecting these two centralities to the Praça do Chile". One also reads that there is a will to "take advantage of the intervention in Praça do Chile to boost the urban requalification of Rua Morais Soares, as an inductive space for the commercial life of the entire neighborhood"with, for example "reorganization of the automobile parking in the area, creating more alternatives in the transversals to the current parking on Morais Soares Street, in which should remain only loading/unloading and BUS stops". The Chile Square project in A Square in Every Neighborhood relied on citizen participation, through online channels, and with two public sessions held at the Café Império in early 2015.

With the renovation of the Praça do Chile, the Rua António Pereira Carrilho is also to be remadethat descends from Largo do Leão. This street would have two ascending lanes and only one descending lane, which would allow for the expansion of pedestrian space and esplanade areas. In addition to the tree-planting of the street and the reorganization of parking, the descending lane would be shared with a 30+bikeIt connects to other 30+bicycle arteries planned for the area: Quirino Fonseca Street (which would also have a bicycle counterflow), Alves Torgo Street, and António Pedro Street, three perpendiculars to António Pereira Carrilho Street.

In the Largo do Leão, a Visconde de Santarém Streetwhich starts at Avenida Rovisco Pais, where there is a bicycle lane in the continuation of Duque d'Ávila, also appeared as 30+bici downhill; however, the markings on the ground were not realized - only the 30 km/h limit was placed there. Visconde de Santarém and António Pereira Carrilho streets are two arteries with a steep incline, but the continuous 30+bici downhill would mark a desirable route for many cyclists who, coming from Duque d'Ávila or Rovisco Pais, can quickly reach Avenida Almirante Reis without having to make the current detour through London Square and Alameda.

You can see and download the two projects - Largo do Leão and its surroundings (already done), and Praça do Chile and its surroundings (pre-ciclovia version) - below:

Moedas may make the renovation of Almirante Reis his mandate flag

When Carlos Moedas said and repeated in the campaign that the Almirante Reis bicycle path "is to end"he also said that what he was looking for were well-planned bicycle paths and spoke of asking for an audit from LNEC before reviewing the entire expansion plan for Lisbon's cycling network. Madalena Natividade, elected candidate of the coalition New Times (of Moedas) for the parish of Arroios, included in his program the promise of a "major intervention in Avenida Almirante Reis that supports a well-planned and better executed bicycle path".

In other words, Moedas' intention seems to be the same as Medina's, with one difference: Medina preferred to put a bicycle path pop-up on Almirante Reis before starting the debate on a serious requalification of that entire artery. The promise to launch this debate had been made at the time of the bike path redesign announcement pop-upThe PS executive is planning to put Avenida Almirante Reis up for public discussion before the election period, through a process similar to the one developed with the Martim Moniz Square. But the debate about the future of Almirante Reis was not launched.

Now, Carlos Moedas can add the fundamental requalification that Almirante Reis so badly needs with the process already underway for Martim Moniz, add the intervention of the Praça do Chile and its surroundings, add a requalification of the Rua Morais Soares and associated the Parada Alto de São João (which is also included in the A Square in Every Neighborhood with project already done, which includes a car parking lot)Moedas could also review the projects that have already been carried out and ask for new ones. Moedas may also review projects already done and ask for new ones.

All this is, for now, still speculation. It is certain that the new Moedas' executive will inherit from Medina a set of projects and previous works that, if he wants, he will be able to connect one to the other to make it his great political banner of the mandate (as Medina did with the Central Axis between Entrecampos and the Marquês de Pombal), in a parish that the PSD/CDS won from the PS and that was one of the centers of the entire municipal campaign.

Article updated 5/10/2021 with corrections on the status of the bikeway design review and details on the new proposal for Chile Square.