Sobral de Monte Agraço with national roads restricted

The Mayor of Sobral de Monte Agraço warned this Tuesday that all national roads providing access to the municipality are restricted, adding that he has already asked the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing for solutions to the problem.

“At this moment, all the national roads that serve the municipality are experiencing serious problems resulting from storm Martinho [at the end of March],” said the mayor, José Alberto Quintino, to the Lusa news agency.

According to the mayor, Minister Miguel Pinto Luz was asked, in a recent meeting, for “a quick solution to resolve the existing constraints to reach the municipality quickly”.

The mayor explained that the national roads (EN) 115, next to Forte do Alqueidão, and 248-2, in the town of Pé do Monte, have “ half a lane of traffic in very poor condition ” since Storm Martinho, when that lane was restricted and traffic was circulating alternately.

Also due to the bad weather at the end of March, the EN 248 collapsed and has since been restricted near Arruda dos Vinhos and closed in both directions in the Dois Portos area — Torres Vedras municipality —, forcing the population in the latter case to “take twice as long and travel via alternative routes”.

The EN374 is currently experiencing “serious collapse” in the Sapataria area, which is affecting one lane, with traffic now alternating. The road variant created in Casais de S. Martinho after the removal of the level crossing on the Oeste railway line “fell down due to bad weather and has not been rebuilt”, dividing the village.

The mayor stressed to Miguel Pinto Luz the need for Infraestruturas de Portugal to adopt “urgent and provisional measures, while the definitive contracts are not completed”.

The mayor expressed concern about the lack of interventions, even temporary ones, on the main access roads to the municipality , which have not undergone any maintenance or requalification work for around three months.

“We had municipal roads that had problems due to the bad weather and we have now temporarily resolved them,” explained José Alberto Quintino. According to the municipality of the district of Lisbon, the lack of intervention has caused “significant impacts” on the mobility of the population, the activity of companies and local economic development.

In May, IP announced that it had started work to stabilize the EN248 in Torres Vedras.

The intervention, with an execution period of 240 days and a cost of over 920 thousand euros, covers a 150-meter stretch and consists of the demolition of the existing wall, construction of two reinforced concrete walls and demolition and reconstruction of two hydraulic passages.

In addition to solutions for stabilizing the road platform and reconstructing hydraulic crossings, cleaning, deforestation, paving replacement and installation of road signage and safety equipment are also planned.

According to IP, the project “will guarantee the restoration of traffic conditions on the EN248 with adequate levels of road safety and comfort in the service of mobility”.