by The president of Metro de Lisboa justified the increase of more than 100 million euros in investments to connect São Sebastião to Alcântara with the increase in energy and material costs, but also with projects that were not initially foreseen, such as preparing for the future surface light rail to Oira..
The president of the Metropolitano de Lisboa said this Thursday in Parliament that he intends to sign the contract for the construction of the extension of the red line between São Sebastião and Alcântara in the third quarter of this year.
With the tender already under way, Vítor Domingues dos Santos reminded that the signing of the contract does not mark the start of work, because the contractor still has six months to prepare the execution work, but underlined that “the execution of the work cannot pass in December 2026”.
Regarding the red line extension project, whose investment value has increased by around 100 million euros compared to the original plan, the president of Metropolitano assured that “we are not facing cost overruns” and added that this amount will be financed by the PRR loans. .
“When we started working on the red line it was during the period of Covid-19, but still without the effect of the war, which is the big trigger for price increases,” he said.
Vitor Domingues dos Santos justified the fact that the project went from 304 million to 405.4 million euros with the increase in the cost of energy and raw materials, but also with the inclusion of projects that were not in the original value.
“One of the reasons for the cost increase, by 10 million euros, is that we are obliged, during the construction of the Alcântara station, to already foresee the LIOS”, the Sustainable Intermodal Line, the light surface metro that will connect Alcântara with Oeiras. . “If we don’t do it now, we will make it impossible to implement this line,” he said.
Vítor Domingues dos Santos pointed out to members of the Economy, Public Works, Planning and Housing committee that “the reasons for the cost increases are of a varied nature”, which is about 25% in terms of price revisions.
The president of Metro de Lisboa highlighted the Bank of Portugal’s data on the evolution of the price of oil and non-energy raw materials, stressing that “the price increase is so significant that it has made it impossible to maintain the value as originally agreed with the PRR of 304 million’.
The official recalled that the signature with the PRR mission structure took place in September 2021 and that from then on the process was being clarified. “This clarification introduced some significant costs, in the order of $57 million.”
Where is this money? he asked giving some examples. “In the construction planning of the Alcântara station, we agreed with the IMT that to guarantee access to the 25 de Abril bridge “we will build a roundabout that will allow us to manage during the construction phase to maintain one lane in each direction, plus one lane which is used in one direction during the morning rush hour and in the opposite direction in the late afternoon’.
The president of the Metropolitano also said that another adjustment that needed to be made was between Palácio das Necessidades and Alcântara with an intervention on the Livramento Wall.
“These are all costs that we adjusted between the feasibility study and the final feasibility approval phase,” he said, stressing that “all the adjustments added up came to 57 million.”
