The future Urban Park of Quinta Marquês de Abrantes will be smaller because work is already underway to expand the train line; but Councilwoman Filipa Roseta assured that the public tender for the launch of the work is budgeted and scheduled for 2023.
The train line will grow but the future Quinta Marquês de Abrantes Urban Park, in Marvila, will not stop being made. "The answer is very direct and quick: yes, we will do the Park. Yes, it's included in the city budget. There was a delay here because of the widening of the train tracks. The project will have to be rethought because of that widening.", informed Filipa Roseta, Housing Councillor, during decentralized public meeting on the parishes of Marvila and Alvalade, which took place last week.
"Yes, and in 2023. The idea is to launch the public tender for the work in 2023. It will be launched at the same time as the housing building." affordable rent planned for the same site, Filipa Roseta detailed, noting that the municipal budget has four million euros for this project - one million less than initially put forward. "The project is the same, it will have to consider the increase in lines", said the Social Democrat councillor. "It is a project very dear to the population and it is to move forward. It was for your participation, for everything you dream and want for the neighborhood, there was no other scenario than to move forward with this project."
In charge of the SRU, the Quinta Marquês de Abrantes Urban Park was born from an expressed desire of the citizens of the parish of Marvila. It was through the community group 4Growing residents started thinking about a green space for the more than seven-hectare plot next to the train line. They applied to the Participatory Budget in 2018, which was rejected because the land was already earmarked for affordable housing. They did not give up fighting for an urban park on those hectares and, in 2019, they managed to convince the municipality then led by Fernando Medina. The project for the now named Quinta Marquês de Abrantes Urban Park was created through a public competition - there were several proposals and the moderators were part of the jury that chose the winning project, signed by the architecture studio PROAP.
The Urban Park was planned in two phases, already thinking about the possible expansion of the railway channel; two weeks ago, Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) announced the launch of the public tender to design the park. project to quadruple the Belt Line between Roma-Areeiro and Braço de Prataas well as the requalification of the Marvila and Braço de Prata stations, and the construction of a new station in Chelas, connected to the Olaias Metro. Because the expansion of the railroad will have been faster than the construction of the Park, the project has been adjusted to reality; therefore, the part of the Park that would be under the future train line will no longer be built. You can see in the following images what the Park would look like with and without the extension of the train line:
The Quinta do Marquês de Abrantes Urban Park will have recreational and sports equipment, community gardens, pedestrian and cycling routes and a playground, and will promote urban integration between the future Marvila train station, which will replace the current station, and the neighborhood, integrating with existing municipal housing, with the planned expansion of the neighborhood and also with the Municipal Library of Marvila.
