The Construction that Will Help Define Porto in 2019

2 January 2019

According to the municipality of Porto, in 2019 the Rosa Mota Pavilion will be ready to be used for major events in the city and construction on the Matadouro (former slaughterhouse) and the Campanhã Intermodal Terminal will begin. Also, works on a new metro line are to start, and the city council will relocate residents of the Aleixo area.

Matadouro

 

While 2018 was the year in which the restoration of the Bolhão Market began, 2019 should be the year in which works begin on the Campanhã Matadouro. The government has already awarded the contract, but it still awaits approval by the Court of Auditors. Should that occur, construction would begin after a few more months of projects. The total investment (which is private), is estimated at 40 million euros. Rui Moreira sees the former slaughterhouse as one of the most important investments of his term and crucial for the development of the entire eastern part of the city. There, works will create space for the installation of innovative companies and cultural and social activities.

Rosa Mota Pavilion

Works on the Rosa Mota Pavilion will conlcude in 2019 after approximately one year of construction. The venue has been in poor condition for many years. The former sports pavilion, later named after the Olympic athlete of the same name, will become a multi-purpose facility, receiving medium to large congresses, musical shows, exhibitions and sporting events. The works are being undertaken with private investment, with an additional contribution to the municipality. The rehabilitation, worth 8 million euros, will end in 2019.

New metro line

The new metro line is essential to increase and extend the supply of public transportation in the city, making new approaches to traffic and mobility possible. The new line will link the Casa da Música to the São Bento station in downtown Baixa, with stops close to such important facilities as the Materno-Infantil Centre, the Hospital de Santo António and the Rosa Mota Pavilion. Several studies pointed to the new line was necessary to alleviate the overburdened central section of the Yellow Line. Works are due to begin in 2019, lasting two years. There will be some inevitable knock-on effects on traffic in the city, even though the construction is completely underground.

Housing for the middle class

The middle-class housing program will also take off in 2019, prioritising subsidised housing. Several projects are planned to create conditions granting access to subsidised housing in Porto to a larger part of the population. The projects will be through partnerships with private companies, which will help control the municipality’s costs with public housing, which are already quite high. The partnerships will also allow for better quality construction.

Rainha Dona Leonor

The area was one of the main foci of urban blight in Porto, with old “temporary” housing blocks, coated with asbestos, in place for decades in a central part place of the city. The government of Rui Moreira, the previous mayor of the city, launched a program divided the existing lands, increasing its constructive capacity and providing a method for tendering the needed work while allowing all of the existing tenants to remain in the place. The private developer will also build private housing, which will finance the construction of the subsidised housing. This solution allowed for the construction of high-quality social housing, relocating all of the existing tenants and even assigning additional homes to other families on the waiting list for subsidised housing, at zero cost to the Porto City Council. The developer plans to deliver the homes at the beginning of the year.

Campanhã Intermodal Terminal

Promised to the city in 2003, the Terminal that will cap the transit system in the eastern zone of the city, never went ahead until recently. A metro line already exists next to the Campanhã railway station, besides its connection to the country’s main train network. What was left was the bus terminal, which will relieve much of the burden on the city’s transportation network. The terminal will provide links with important new facilities in the city’s eastern zone, including the Matadouro and a planned, new bridge. Construction on the Terminal will begin in 2019, made possible thanks to an agreement (Porto Agreement) with the central government. The city council will take advantage of the construction to build an urban park and create access to the Campanhã Station.

Resettlement in Aleixo

Conceived at a time when it was thought that high-rise construction could work for social housing, the neighbourhood has fallen into disrepair, becoming a well-known centre for drug trafficking. The previous mayor created a private fund to deal with the situation, but no work went ahead. When Rui Moreira took office, the fund was near extinction, with no funds, no houses and two towers had been demolished. The current mayor recapitalised the fund and found a new investor. The area will now be redeveloped at no cost to the city council. The poor conditions in the towers led Rui Moreira to relocate the residents to an area with a better quality of life, ending many of the problems associated with that area of the city. The relocation will be completed in the first quarter of 2019.

Original Story: Construir

Translation: Richard Turner