Work on Porto’s ‘metrobus’ between Avenida da Boavista and Avenida Marechal Gomes da Costa starts on Monday and will last until the summer, Metro do Porto announced today.
“As of Monday, January 15, the ‘metrobus’ intervention at the intersection of Avenida da Boavista and Avenida do Marechal Gomes da Costa will begin,” reads a note issued today by Metro do Porto on its website dedicated to the new lines.
According to the transport company, “this phase of the work will last two months, after which the work will move on to other parts of the intersection between these two avenues”, but in total the work on the intersection between the two avenues “will last until the summer”.
“In the first phase, the bus lanes and left-turn lanes on Avenida da Boavista and the garden areas at the beginning of [Avenida Marechal] Gomes da Costa will be occupied. Pedestrian traffic will be maintained in this area”, Metro do Porto explains.
The Monument to the Entrepreneur has already been removed.
Metro do Porto’s new service will connect Casa da Música to Praça do Império (in 12 minutes) and Anémona (in 17) in 2024, using hydrogen buses, circulating in a dedicated lane on Avenida da Boavista and coexisting with cars on Avenida Marechal Gomes da Costa.
Work on the first phase started at the end of January 2023, with the Casa da Música, Guerra Junqueiro, Bessa, Pinheiro Manso, Serralves, João de Barros and Império stations on the first service, and the section to Matosinhos adding Antunes Guimarães, Garcia de Orta, Nevogilde, Castelo do Queijo and Praça Cidade do Salvador (Anémona).
The service vehicles, similar to those of the conventional metro, will be built by the consortium that includes CaetanoBus and DST Solar, in a contract awarded for 29.5 million euros.
Initially, the ‘metrobus’ project was only planned to go as far as Praça do Império, but as the value of the contract (25 million euros) fell short of the 66 million euros, the government decided to extend the service to Praça Cidade do Salvador, known as Anémona, in Matosinhos.
Porto’s metrobus will cost 10 million euros more than the 66 million initially planned, according to a government resolution published on November 17.
The investment initially planned for the ‘metrobus’, of 66 million euros, is fully financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), and the additional 10 million could also be financed by the PRR, the Environmental Fund or the State Budget.
