Porto, Sept. 1, 2025 (Lusa) - The AVAN Norte consortium is going to propose the Gaia high-speed railway station south of Santo Ovídio and two bridges over the Douro instead of a road-railway solution, which differs from the specifications.
In response to questions from Lusa, Eduardo Pimentel, director of the AVAN Norte consortium, formerly called LusoLav (Mota-Engil, Teixeira Duarte, Alves Ribeiro, Casais, Conduril and Gabriel Couto), said that the proposed solution for the Gaia station would be "in the immediate vicinity of the Sto. Ovídio junction of the A1 [Motorway 1], but to the south of it, being a surface station", remaining "within the jurisdiction of the Mafamude and Vilar do Paraíso Parish Union", although the two parishes will be separated after the local elections.
Lusa also questioned the consortium on whether it confirms that the proposed location is Guardal de Cima, in Vilar do Paraíso, whether it commits to financing the connection of this station location to the Porto Metro and with which lines (in April, it proposed only the Rubi), and is awaiting a response.
As for the crossings over the Douro, the consortium's representative points to the separation of the bridges instead of a single road-rail bridge, saying that "the technical solution for the Douro bridge (Upper Railway Deck and Lower road deck) remains, but despite being in the same physical space, they are two independent structures".
After the project was awarded in October 2024, in which the consortium released a video with the Santo Ovídio station and a road-rail bridge, in April it presented an alternative solution that was not foreseen in the specifications, with the station in Vilar do Paraíso and two bridges instead of one, without the government or Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) being aware of it.
Regarding the station and bridge, the manager uses the verb "maintain" in his replies to Lusa, even though these are different solutions from those envisaged since the high-speed rail project was presented in September 2022.
Another LusoLAV administrator, Rui Guimarães, had already asked, at a Gaia City Council meeting in April where he presented the alternative solutions, that they not be referred to as such.
"Just for everyone to be together, we're united in the same direction. Please don't call this an alternative. This represents an evolution of the project, progressing from an initial stage to a more developed one. This is important in formal and legal terms, we don't make alternatives," he said, fearing that such a speech could "be detrimental in the final battle".
Another representative, Jorge Rodrigues, said on the same occasion that the consortium would need the support of the municipality, which approved the alternative solution (PS voted in favour and PSD voted against in the Chamber and, in the Municipal Assembly, IL voted against and CDU abstained).
"We're going to need your support. We're all going to IP [Infraestruturas de Portugal], we're going to APA [Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente], so that they can approve this type of solution, I'm even referring to the station," he said.
On 16 April, the government said that "any possible change will have to be fully safeguarded from a legal point of view, be in full agreement with the requirements of the tender specifications and secure the agreement of the municipalities", recalling that the project "is based on the solution presented in the tender by the LusoLav consortium, winner of the tender, which was in line with the preliminary project presented by IP", with a station in Santo Ovídio and a connection to the Metro's Yellow Line, and a single bridge.
The National Railway Plan, published in April in Diário da República (DR), also establishes that Gaia's high-speed station is in Santo Ovídio.
The tender specifications mention the Santo Ovídio station 17 times and include a preliminary programme for the construction of the underground station, as well as an appendix with a map of its location, on a vacant lot opposite the current D. João II metro station.
The document establishing the boundaries of the concession states that the Campanhã and Santo Ovídio stations should be adjusted to comply with the respective preliminary programmes.
JE/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
