Brava: Government announces construction of new road Esparadinha/Fajã d'Água/Palhal

The Minister of Infrastructure, Spatial Planning and Housing announced in Brava the construction of a new road that will link Esparadinha/ Fajã d'Água/Palhal, providing “more accessibility and mobility” to the population of Brava.

Eunice Silva made these statements to the press, as part of her visit to Brava Island to find out about a landslide in a rock, which took place on the 21st of January this year.

“We ended up visiting everything that has to do with the projects we have on the island, but our main concern had to do with the access road to Fajã d´Água, where we are intervening”, declared the minister, who recalled that the landslide occurred more than three months ago.

"We wanted it to be less time, but it took two months for us to open the road and it was opened in a conditioned way because it was necessary that even if it was in one direction the vehicles could circulate", reinforced the same source.

The same source indicated that the work "was not fully completed", so continuity will be given until normal circulation in that section, but acknowledged that this will not guarantee safety in full.

“Which means that we have to remain attentive to that slope because, as we have already said several times, that rock is fragmented with many fissures”, maintained Eunice Silva, hence, he continued, the search for an alternative with the council and population, which involves construction a new road or a new section of Esparadinha to connect Fajã d'Água to Palhal.

It is, he continued, a distance of about four kilometers, but with “many water lines”, however the minister informed that at this moment “there is no way to specify when the project starts to be executed”, as well as the budget and the duration of the works, emphasizing that the technical study to be carried out will answer these questions.

“What we have committed here is that we are on the island and intervening on the old road and we are not going to leave here”, he guaranteed, while also indicating “parallel work” on the project and that, “in due time”, the technical and financial solution of the new road will be presented to the bravens.

“That's what we're going to work on with this commitment that it's necessary to have this new road (…)”, Eunice Silva explained.

For his part, the mayor of Brava, Francisco Tavares, was "satisfied" with the commitment assumed by the Minister of Infrastructure, Spatial Planning and Housing, which will take into account the construction of a new path for resolution of a problem that has been affecting the population.

“I was quite satisfied with the various alternatives presented by the engineers, all of whom are in line with the need to repair the road where the landslide occurred as normal, and then take firm steps so that in the not too long future there will be progress on the Esparandinha/Fajã road project d´Água to Palhal, then forming a ring", summarized the mayor.