The National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC) has already received 2.3 million euros from the government to finance the report on the new airport in the Lisbon region, revealed to Dinheiro Vivo, the chairman of the Monitoring Commission (CA), Carlos Mineiro Aires.
The public institution is responsible for managing the budgetary costs resulting from the establishment and operation of the Independent Technical Commission (CTI) and the CA. In addition to drawing up the Strategic Environmental Impact Report (SMB), LNEC will also be responsible for logistical and administrative support, as well as any acquisitions and contracting.
As Dinheiro Vivo progressed, the first check, worth half a million euros, arrived at LNEC in December last year, when the committees met for the first time. Four months later, the government released the remaining amount of 1.8 million euros. The chairman of the Supreme Council of Public Works (CSOP) notes that this payment was made “with some delay”, which could have an impact on the established work schedule, although he admits it is still “too early to judge”.
CTI will have to submit the final report to the Ministry of Infrastructure by Dec. 31 and on meeting the deadline, Carlos Mineiro Aires says he is “optimistic” but admits bureaucracy could delay deadlines. “I am an optimistic person, but also a realist. LNEC will have to outsource the administrative procedures and they are committed to a series of lengthy procedures,” he explains, referring to “only two weeks ago the second tranche of the budget was released” , which prevented the work from progressing sooner. “We will do everything we can to complete the recruitment quickly, so that the year-end date is met,” he assures.
The CA leader also believes that the budget set in the committee’s activity plan will be met and that it will not be necessary for the government to spend much more money to arrive at the final solution for the expansion of the airport in the region of Lisbon.
“If additional requests have to be made, it will not be a major effort,” he guarantees, recalling, however, that funding from resources from the state budget is essential to ensure the successful completion of the works.
“LNEC cannot make efforts for this from its own budget. This is an autonomous project that will have to be financed autonomously,” he explains. DN/DV contacted the Ministry of Finance, but received no response at the end of this edition. As a reminder, the multi-annual budget now allocated to LNEC was completely transferred in 2021 from the Institute for Mobility and Transport (IMT), which had received the green light from the government, to cover the costs of the international tender for the acquisition of services intended for the development of SEA.
Short list announced today
Today, CTI will publicly present the results of the work carried out in the first phase of the works. At a conference, which will take place in the afternoon at LNEC’s facilities, the solutions moving to the next phase will be announced, as well as the technical-scientific feasibility criteria that support them.
So far, CTI has collected 17 hypotheses across 15 sites. Carlos Mineiro Aires has no doubt that the list will shrink. “Within these paraphernalia of location options, some will have to be left out. Anything that does not allow to respond to the increase in airport capacity in the Lisbon region makes no sense to consider. Some solutions do not fit into this design and there are others that, for environmental reasons or due to local noise pollution, are also not worth considering,” he justifies.
The chairman of the CSOP admits that the five hypotheses indicated by the government – Portela+Montijo; Montijo + Portela; Alcochete shooting range; Portela + Santarém and Santarém – continue to the next stage. “These solutions should be appreciated, even if they may not be considered later. If they were not, it would be a distortion of the resolution of the Council of Ministers resulting from an agreement between PS and PSD.”, he refers.
In addition, the sixth hypothesis of the CTI, Alcochete + Portela, must also be adopted. The list of future locations and combinations has grown in recent months. In January, Portela + Alverca and Beja were listed and this month the mayor of Leiria sent the Monte Real proposal to CTI.
After the public hearing was concluded, eight new locations were also integrated through the online platform aeroparticipa.pt: Ota, Rio Frio, Pegões, Poceirão, Évora, Apostiça, Sintra and Tancos.
The leader of CA traces a positive balance of the audition phase. “On the one hand, it allowed no one to complain that they were not heard or that they were not given the opportunity to express their opinion. On the other hand, it allowed serious solutions to be equated and included in this assessment,” he defends, warning, however, for the complexity of the assessment.
“Building an airport is not planting one or two runways somewhere. You have to look at the territory, the accessibility and the environmental impact,” warns Carlos Mineiro Aires. The engineer also states that “from a certain distance from Lisbon, it makes no sense” to think about implementing an airport infrastructure.
Rute Simão is a journalist for Dinheiro Vivo
Source: DN
