The mayor of Ponte da Barca hopes that at the Iberian Summit in October, the governments of Portugal and Spain decide to proceed with the reclassification of the 60 kilometers of the highway that connects Alto Minho with Ourense.
“That they analyze and make decisions, that they move forward with this intervention, that is what we are waiting for. The work of reflecting on the needs has already been done. The important thing is to advance in the implementation”, said this Thursday the mayor of Ponte da Barca, in the district of Viana do Castelo.
Speaking to the Lusa agency, the Social Democrat Augusto Marinho said that the manifesto demanding the execution of the improvement of the road, signed in August by the mayors of Alto Minho and Galicia, “was sent to the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, and to the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, but there is still no answer”.
This is the road that joins the Complementary Route 28 (IC28) with the border between Magdalena and Ourense, in Galicia, with a length of about 60 kilometres.
The improvement of the Portuguese section of this road, about 30 kilometers long, is estimated at 15 million euros and claimed for more than a decade. Built in the 1980s, and where “more than four thousand vehicles pass a day”, the road is “very winding and dangerous”.
Augusto Marinho said that the municipalities that signed that letter, in an act held next to the Madalena border, in Lindoso, Ponte da Barca, “will articulate the measures and actions to be developed”, taking advantage of the fact that the Iberian Summit will take place in Viana do Castelo in October.
The important thing is that this matter is at the top, so that we can make this much-needed and urgent intervention. This is the opportunity for the two governments to sit down, since they are in the district, and talk about investments between the two parties. In this case it is a route with intervention from the Portuguese side and from the Spanish side”, he said.
The mayor said that, before the meeting between the governments of the two countries, the mayors of Alto Minho and Galicia will meet “to see what to do.”
“What we did was very relevant. It was about putting this issue on the political agenda. It will be even more visible, given that the Iberian Summit is being held in Viana do Castelo and, therefore, it is a very close need”, he concluded.
In August, the mayors who signed the letter demanded that the governments carry out this work “soon, within the framework of the Recovery and Resilience Plan or through financing instruments within the framework of cross-border cooperation.”
This connection has an impact on the entire North region, since it is the gateway to the province of Ourense, due to its proximity to the Spanish highway A52 and the high-speed highway (AVE). It is from these important infrastructures that we managed to be in the center of Spain, in Madrid, but also in the center of Europe, reinforcing the competitiveness of this territory”, said Augusto Marinho at the time.
According to the mayor, “the improvement of this [estrada] it is registered in the National Highway Plan (PRN), defined as a priority, as well as in the joint investment plan of the Northern Euroregion of Portugal/Galicia”, he highlighted.
On the occasion, the mayor of Arcos de Valdevez, João Manuel Esteves, pointed to the next Iberian Summit as a “golden opportunity” for the two governments to “do justice to the people and the territory, justice to a region that effectively wants to have political cohesion”, economic cohesion and social cohesion”.
Contacted today by Lusa, the social democrat said that this manifesto was also sent to the Ministries of Infrastructure and Housing, Territorial Cohesion, the Commission for Coordination and Regional Development of the North (CCDR-N) and the European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) . North of Portugal and Galicia.
“Soon we want to start receiving feedback on our position,” said João Manuel Esteves.
Source: Observadora
