The Estado da Mobilidade Office, under Secretary Cristina Pinto Dias, has declared the public utility and urgency of expropriating a series of properties and associated rights, delineated as parcels BR-NL-001, BR-NL-002, BR-NL-003, and BR-NL-004, as identified in the officially published cadastral maps.
The areas in question are located at the crossroads of Avenida da Boavista and Avenida Antunes Guimarães, specifically relating to properties situated from 3296 to 3324 Avenida da Boavista and from 18 to 48 Avenida Dr. Antunes Guimarães.
Additional properties set for expropriation are found further west on Praceta Prof. Egas Moniz, from number 12 to 150, close to the City Park.
According to the official illustration, these expropriation efforts entail parcels of land adjacent to sidewalks and public roads, not involving the demolition of residential buildings.
Metro do Porto, the company overseeing this construction, has been granted authorization to assume administrative possession of the designated lands. The company will also bear all financial responsibilities for these expropriations, for which it has ensured financial coverage and provided a guarantee to secure payment.
The second phase of Porto’s metrobus project, extending from Pinheiro Manso to Anémona, is poised to proceed following a nearly eight-month legal standstill, announced Tiago Braga, President of Metro do Porto, on Tuesday.
“Due to the complexities of public procurement, we’ve experienced an almost eight-month halt, but fortunately, we can now move forward. We aim to sign the contract, which will then be reviewed by the Court of Auditors,” stated Tiago Braga during the “What mobility do we want/will we have in 2035?” discussion held at the old Vasco da Gama cannery facility in Matosinhos, Porto district.
Braga emphasized the goal of commencing construction “as swiftly as possible,” acknowledging that certain external factors are beyond the company’s control.
“Under normal circumstances, we’d likely have already completed the infrastructure by now,” he noted.
On August 1, 2024, it was reported that the construction company ABB contested the contract award of the second phase of Porto’s metrobus (Pinheiro Manso – Anémona) to DST by Metro do Porto, a project valued at 14.9 million euros.
An urgent administrative proceeding was submitted to Porto’s Administrative and Tax Court, automatically suspending the project. ABB sought to reverse their exclusion from the bid and gain the contract award.
Recent reports indicate the court overturned the assignment to DST, opting instead to grant the contract to ABB, the second-placed bidder, according to a response from Metro do Porto.
The metrobus route will connect Casa da Música to Praça do Império in 12 minutes and Anémona in 17 minutes, featuring planned stations at Casa da Música, Guerra Junqueiro, Bessa, Pinheiro Manso, Serralves, João de Barros, and Império for the first service, and Antunes Guimarães, Garcia de Orta, Nevogilde, Castelo do Queijo, and Praça Cidade do Salvador (Anémona) for the second.
The initial service is pending, awaiting the arrival of the vehicles that will operate it.
The service will utilize hydrogen buses resembling conventional metro vehicles, developed at a cost of 29.5 million euros by a consortium including CaetanoBus and DST Solar, which also provides the fueling infrastructure.
The total cost of the ‘metrobus’ project is estimated at approximately 76 million euros.
