The construction of the Encosta do Olival Urban Park has discreetly started, which will open up a new area of the city, unknown to many, making new urban landscapes accessible to pedestrians and cyclists.
It will be called Encosta do Olival Urban Park and will be integrated in the so-called Lisbon Peripheral Green Corridor. Connected to the cyclopedestrian bridge over Calçada de Carriche and also to the already existing Urban Park of Vale da Ameixoeira, this new green area of the city will have about seven thousand hectares, developing along the Alcoutins Golf Club, on a hillside with a unique view to Odivelas.
Encosta do Olival Urban Park will unveil a new part of town, unknown to manybecoming accessible to pedestrian and cycling mobility new urban landscapes. What's more, the future Park will also be able to unlock new mobility optionsIt almost connects the Calçada de Carriche (and the whole area of Ameixoeira/Santa Clara) to Paço do Lumiar, from where you can easily reach the neighborhood of Telheiras.
O public tender for the construction of this Encosta do Olival Urban Park was quietly completed in August 2022 by 792.5 thousand euros and an execution time of one year; the contract was signed with the company Unikonstroi. The Lisbon City Hall did not announce the construction of this green equipment in any of its official channels, nor did it publish anywhere the construction project. However, construction on the site has already started.
According to the project's descriptive memory, the new Urban Park covers "two areas of very distinct typology" - on the one hand, “an extensive waiting area located between the Alcoutins Golf Club and the framework slopes of the Calçada de Carrichecharacterized by landfills of earth and material left over from construction sites and poles from EDP low and medium voltage".on the other hand, one area "along the Military Line of Defensewhich has already been qualified, but has been without maintenance for some time, which has led to its degradation"..
Encosta do Olival Urban Park will unify these two zones with mixed routes (walking and cycling) and footpathsand also with corridors of trees and shrubsand with several meadow areas. The paths will be located, whenever possible, on pre-existing paths, in order to maintain the current circulation patterns already established and to minimize implementation costs. The Urban Park will have three entries - the Rua Principal behind the EDP substation, the cyclopedestrian bridge over the Calçada de Carriche and Rua Formosinho Sanches, in Quinta dos Alcoutins - and will allow you to travel the former Military Line of Defense.
Two areas with sports and recreational equipment will be created, with picnic equipment, game tables and an open-air gym. It is also planned to reactivate a drainage ditch, which is currently filled with garbage, and which is intended to function as a small retention basin that can capture some of the flow from the hillside. As for vegetation, all trees that are in good phytosanitary condition will be maintained and reinforcement will be done with the introduction of new species, whether trees, shrubs, or species intended to create natural and biodiverse meadows.
Currently, it is already possible to ride on the wooden cyclopedestrian bridge over the Calçada de Carriche, which connects, through a green cyclopedestrian path, to the Estrada dos Desvio and then to the Parque Urbano do Vale da Ameixoeira, a hidden treasure in the limits of Lisbon. In the futureAll these routes will be complemented with an intermunicipal bike path between Odivelas and Lisbon, along the Calçada de Carriche.
Encosta do Olival Urban Park will integrate the Lisbon Peripheral Green Corridor. This Green Corridor already has the following spaces, which can be visited freely:
- o Urban Park of Quinta da Granjain Benfica, next to Colombo;
- a Bom Nome FarmPontinha, where the European University is located and which has some public green spaces;
- a Quinta da Alfarrobeirain São Domingos de Benfica, near Fonte Nova;
- o Garden of Light and the Quinta das Carmelitasright next door, in Carnide;
- o Carnide Horticultural Parkin the Padre Cruz neighborhood;
- o Quinta da Nossa Senhora da Paz Parkin Lumiar;
- o Vale da Ameixoeira Urban Parkin Santa Clara;
- a Cyclopedestrian bridge over the Calçada de Carrichewhich will connect the new Encosta do Olival Urban Park to the one in Vale da Ameixoeira, and also connects to Quinta de Santa Clara.
The Lisbon Peripheral Green Corridor will also integrate the Carnide Urban ParkThe Vale do Forno Urban Park, which will be about 20 hectares and will transform a former sealed landfill into a park with a strong component of biodiversity promotion; and the green, pedestrian and cycling connection between Calhariz de Benfica and the public square of Fonte Nova and the Monsanto Forest Park.
