Rogério Bacalhau set this goal for the completion of the new crossing during a visit to the works, within the scope of the “Faro Positivo” initiative, after recognising that there may be some delay in relation to the 18-month deadline set out by the municipality when it signed the consignment notice, in September 2022.

“It won’t be much [the delay]. [If it is] Eighteen months, a year and a half, we would be talking about next summer and, probably, it will be there, between next summer and the end of the calendar year”, said the Mayor.

Rogério Bacalhau explained that it was necessary to adapt the project and carry out surveys, but considered that this work allowed “saving time”, because the surveys that existed “were more than 15 years old” and “the ecosystem changes” over time.

“Fortunately, we carried out these surveys, adapted the project and it went very well. At this moment, things no longer have the danger of going wrong, as we did before because we have piles here driven at 49 meters - it's a very tall building, 49 meters -, others less, at 35, but all of this went on normally. and, above all, without harming the ecosystem” of the Ria Formosa, said the Mayor.

Luis Palaré, from Engisphera, the company in charge of supervising the work, said that the geological study of the project was from 2005 and that during the reassessment, tests were carried out on all the alignments of the pillars, concluding that it was necessary to adjust the project.

The president of the Algarve Chamber noted that there are “several companies monitoring and taking care of the estuary because of the work” and was satisfied because “everything went as expected” and the work on the foundations did not cause movement and did not affected with the old bridge.

“Next week the piles will all be completed, one is missing on land and another that is almost on land too, and then we will start making the deck”, he anticipated, indicating that these works will begin in November and that, once completed, they will be missing finishes and the sides of the bridge.

Rogério Bacalhau considered that “something very strange would have to happen for [the bridge] to not be completed in 2024”, stressing that there were “changes” to the work to allow “an intervention in the inner part of the beach”, which will already be done so there will be no “major works” in July and August.

“It is the most complex work, not only in the municipality of Faro, but I would say in the Algarve, that has already been done, at least in this century”, considered the mayor, justifying that “it is certainly the most complex work taking into account, until, the ecosystem in which we are intervening”.

Asked whether the planned budget of 6.6 million will be maintained, Rogério Bacalhau replied yes, but highlighted that an investment of one million euros is still missing for the removal of the old bridge.

“In one of the tenders we had included the removal of the bridge, but then it was left empty and we ended up increasing the value and withdrawing [the removal of the] bridge”, he explained.

According to the mayor, 6.6 million euros are guaranteed for the new crossing and then a new tender will need to be launched to remove the current bridge, with an estimated cost of one million euros.