The coordinator of the airport’s Independent Technical Commission (CTI) said today that only four of the 25 necessary studies are contracted, but assured that the delays are being absorbed, maintaining the delivery of the report at the end of the year.
“The contracts should have been signed in January, the six months [of delay] is because we are in July and the contracts are not all signed, there are four,” of the 25 studies needed, said coordinator Rosário Partidário, during the second conference of the Independent Technical Commission (CTI) – Airport, to present the result of the activities carried out in the second phase of the Strategic Environmental Assessment on increasing airport capacity for the Lisbon region.
CTI presented the five critical decision factors and the assessment criteria that will be used in the assessment of the strategic options in the third phase of the ongoing analysis and assessment.
Questioned during the question and answer period, Rosário Partidário added that, although most of the studies are not yet contracted, for bureaucratic reasons beyond the CTI’s control, the commission has been working at a pace that will allow it to deliver the report at the end of the year, “as agreed”.
“There are no delays, the delays are being absorbed by our response capacity,” he clarified.
Earlier in the conference, Rosário Partidário had said that “the third phase [of the work] is scheduled for December 2023 or January 2024, due to the two or three months of delay”. “This delay stems from the bureaucratic and administrative difficulties we have had and not from our work,” she added.
According to the deadlines already announced, the start of the third phase of the CTI’s work was scheduled for May, hence the delay of about two and a half months, which, according to the coordinator, will not have an impact on the delivery of the final report.
The draft CTI report is due in late October or early November, followed by the public consultation period between November and December.
Asked about the forecast for signing the remaining contracts, Rosário Partidário replied: “I would also like to know, this is one of the big questions we have had since January”, also advising journalists to question the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC), or the Ministry of Infrastructure.
“I can’t answer something that has nothing to do with us,” he said.
