There is already a project to improve the cycle path near Gulbenkian and El Corte Inglés

O a section of cycle path linking Avenida Duque d'Ávila to the top of Parque Eduardo VII, passing Gulbenkian and El Corte Inglés., it will be significantly improved. The implementation project is already known and the call for tenders is launched which will allow the completion of the work, in charge of the municipal company SRU and estimated at 937.6 thousand euros.

The improvement of this cycle path, located on Rua Marquês da Fronteira, is in line with the expansion work to the south of the Gulbenkian garden and also with the renovation of Largo de São Sebastião. The contract seeks to "correct continuity problems and conflict with pedestrians on the cycle track"It will also improve pedestrian accessibility in the area. Many of these corrections will be possible because, with the ongoing expansion of the Gulbenkian garden to the south, the retreat of the wall and the new entrance, Rua Marquês da Fronteira will gain a wide pedestrian area, where the urban city and the new garden will mix. The trees that were previously inside the Gulbenkian space will become public flowerbeds, surrounded by open areas for circulation and also for staying.

The new cycling and pedestrian solution on Rua Marquês da Fronteira maintains the "bidirectional cycle track, segregated from motor traffic"but this will become "always deployed between the road and the sidewalk". "Improvements in cycling will result from an uninterrupted infrastructure at critical points (at road crossings and near the Carris stop) and reduced conflicts with pedestrians, by circulating in channels at different levels and by reducing the number of crossings between pedestrian and cyclist routes. The track will be lowered to the level of the road and the conflict points will be addressed in order to obtain clear, legible and common solutions".You can read in the project's descriptive memory.

In more detailThis is what will change:

• the interruption of the cycle lane by the bus stop will be corrected by relocating the bus stop to a more open area and placing the cycle lane behind it, with properly marked crosswalks in the bicycle space;
• the cycle lane will be placed at road level rather than at sidewalk level for almost the entire section, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to better separate their space. Overall, there will be a greater separation between pedestrian and bicycle space.
• the connection of the track to Avenida Duque d'Ávila will be better established, with the painting of the cycle crossing and a crosswalk at the end of the Duque d'Ávila cycle path. In this area, the possible future continuation of the cycle path along Rua Marquês de Sá da Bandeira, next to the Gulbenkian and towards Avenida de Berna, will be ready;
• at the intersection of Rua Marquês da Fronteira with Avenida António Augusto Aguiar, a lane will be removed so that the cycle path can descend from the sidewalk to the road and pedestrians can have more space there. The entire cycle path in front of El Corte Inglés will be revised and improved, as well as the connection to the cycle path that goes up to the top of Parque Eduardo VII, also solving here the conflict that exists today with pedestrians;
• clear cycling connections will be made to the existing 30+bici network on Rua Pinheiro Chagas (towards Picoas) and to the 30+ bikes to be set up in Largo de São Sebastiãocreating a truly interconnected cycling network in the area.

The project description states that, 'due to space constraints, combined with the width necessary for the installation of vertical signs and SLATs [traffic lights] on the separator between the road and the carriageway, the lhe width of the runway will be only 2.2 meters.the separator shall have a zero rebound to the side of the road to facilitate cycling". (the standard width of bidirectional cycle paths is 2.40 meters).

It is also explained that "the importance of Rua Marquês de Fronteira in the hierarchy of the road network, associated with lower than recommended road widths, do not correct the imbalance between road and pedestrian space.not least because of the space gained by the retreat of the garden wall."; and that "the only planned change to the road design is the annulment of the space corresponding to the lane dedicated to the right turn to Avenida António Augusto Aguiar (towards the exit of the city)", allowing for a two-way profile throughout the street.

In relation to pedestrian mode, the intervention of the cycle path will also improve this form of mobility by creating a better distinction, as already mentioned, between the space that is for the pedestrian and that which is for the bicycle. At the intersection of Rua Marquês da Fronteira with Avenida António Augusto Aguiar, the displacement of the cycle path to the road, with the suppression of a lane, will allow to solve a serious bottleneck in the sidewalk and increase the width available for the pedestrian path to between 2.5 and 4.7 meters.

In the steeper areas, the sidewalk will be mixed with white glass and granite cubes for better grip and safety. Conditions at pedestrian crossings will be improved with adequate green times at traffic lights. In the Gulbenkian garden block, the space gained by the retreat of the wall will allow, with a slight reprofiling, to extend the sidewalk on the opposite side - on the Vilalva Palace side - to three meters. On the garden side, the promenade will have a three-meter corridor next to the cycle path, designed for functional use, and another interior corridor, between the new wall and the new flower beds.

The descriptive memory of this project contextualizes Rua Marquês da Fronteira as an important part of an urban area that has been regenerated over the last few years, with the requalification of Avenida Duque d'Ávila, the transformation of Praça de Espanha into an urban park and now the intervention of'A Square in every Neighborhood in Largo de São Sebastião. It is also an important street in the green corridor between the parks of Monsanto and Bela Vista, and also established "one of Lisbon's ancestral connections to its surroundings, from Rossio to São Sebastião da Pedreira and from there to the city limits".

The project presented to improve this section of the cycle path on Rua Marquês da Fronteira already takes into account the changes made to the street. Largo de São Sebastião projectduring the course of the work. Under the influence of the Avenidas Novas Parish Council, the cycling counter-flow initially planned in Rua Dr. Nicolau Bettencourt and in the Largo area was annulled.by exchanging it for 25 additional parking spaces. According to the Base portal, this change cost the municipality EUR 11.5 thousand.