Preliminary injunction filed in early November by three associations, including Quercus and Fórum Cidadania Lx, tries to stop the project to extend the Red Line of the Metro to Alcântara. Public tender advances.
Will be released international open tender that will allow the Lisbon Metro extend the Red Line to Alcântarawith four new kilometers and four new stations - Amoreiras/Campolide, Campo de Ourique, Infante Santo e Alcantara.
The conclusion of the Red Line extension is scheduled for the year 2026, one year later than initially indicated, and will have to be completed by 2026, or risk Lisbon losing the 304 million euros of European funding under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP). In total, the work is expected to cost 405.4 million.
The extension of the Red Line from São Sebastião to Alcântara underwent, last year, a public consultation process following the necessary Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) by the Portuguese Environment Agency. This moment allowed the public to get to know in detail the planned project, which continues to be available in detail here and that it was summarized by us in this article. With public consultation and EIA concluded, the Red Line extension received a favorable Environmental Impact Declaration (EID), allowing the construction work to proceed.
The launching of the international public tender then became possible. It is a process that should take a year, so that in 2024, if all goes as planned, the contract can be awarded and then started. With a total length of around four kilometers, the extension of the Red Line will start at São Sebastião station, through a tunnel section built next to the Palácio da Justiça. Along the double-track tunnel route, the construction of three new underground stations is planned - Amoreiras/Campolide, Campo de Ourique e Infante Santo - and a surface station - Alcantara.
Precautionary order tries to stop the construction work
The location of the Campo de Ourique station in Jardim da Parada, one of the few green spaces in the parish, was widely contested throughout 2022, with two civic movements - on the one hand, the Save the Parade Gardenwhich appeared concerned about the planned felling of trees in the garden and the impact of Metro construction in this area; and a group of citizens who presented a proposal for a "superquarteirão à Barcelona" for the surroundings of the Parada Garden.
The concerns raised by the population of Campo de Ourique led to tweaks in the original project and the clarifications by Metro de Lisboa. The Company explained that the construction site will only occupy about 15% of the garden area and that it will be necessary to remove six loppers, and that at the end of the work six specimens of the same species will be replaced in the garden. At the same time, 50 new trees will be planted in the parish of Campo de Ourique, in a place to be defined between the Câmara and the Junta.
Despite the clarifications, the movement Save the Parade Garden did not give up and, together with the associations House of Goa, Quercus e Citizenship Forum LxThe three associations and the Save the Parada Garden movement filed an injunction on November 8 at the Lisbon Administrative Court. The three associations and the Save the Parada Garden movement claim that the project to extend the Red Line "violates the Lisbon Municipal Master Plan (in force) and the Alcântara Urbanization Plan (idem), as well as the Law for the classification and protection of Trees of Public Interest (Law no. 53/2012, of September 5) and the Law for the Protection of Urban Trees (Law no. 59/2021, of August 18)".
In a note sent to journalists on the day that Metro de Lisboa announced the launch of the tender for the extension of the Red Line, the Save the Garden movement says it still does not understand the location chosen for the Campo de Ourique station and accuses the Minister of the Environment, Duarte Cordeiro, responsible for the Lisbon Metro, of "abusive attitude of power over the city of Lisbon and its citizens" for allowing the tender to be launched despite the ongoing injunction, which has yet to be answered. "It is known to the citizens that in situations of litigation, the amount of PRR allocated to the project extends its execution period. Portugal, contrary to what has been reported by members of the Government and of Metropolitano, does not lose this amount".The movement's communiqué reads.
Meanwhile, the other group of citizens that mobilized around the Campo de Ourique Metro, defending the location of the station next to the Parada Garden but proposing a "Barcelona-style super-block" in this area, continues to work on his proposal.
Here below you can find some documentation about Campo de Ourique. A summary of the expansion of the Red Line to Alcântara can be found here.
