THE GOVERNMENT has denied that Ota is no longer the likely site for a new international airport for Portugal.
It said this week that the various environmental and economic feasibility and impact studies would continue apace from September.
However, it did add that it had shelved, for the time being, public competition bids for the project until all studies had been completed and evaluated. The studies to evaluate the eventual construction of the new international airport “will continue and will be completed and handed in” promised a source linked to the process.
The source, quoted in Lisbon daily newspaper Diário de Notícias, was reacting to news that the government had decided “to freeze preparatory works going on at the Ota site” because a new, cheaper, environmentally friendly and logistically preferable option was to built near Alcochete on the south bank of the River Tagus where wind and weather conditions were more favourable.
Further fuel to the speculation was added when, on August 1, a new, albeit makeshift terminal 2 was opened at Lisbon’s Portela Airport 23km distance away from the Alcochete site.
The weekly newspaper Sol also reported on Saturday that the government had decided to freeze the environmental impact studies, citing a source at NAER ,– the company responsible for the future management of the new airport.
Government
The same source claimed that although the studies would proceed apace and be handed in, it was the government that was dragging its feet on the eventual location of the new airport.
The former shooting range at Alcochete gained momentum as a possible site for the new airport after the Portuguese Industrial Confederation (Confederação da Indústria Portuguesa) commissioned a study which argued it was a far better bet for the new airport.
Following the presentation of this study, the government asked the National Civil Engineering Laboratory (Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil) to carry out its own study on the site.
According to Sol there are three construction consortiums in the bidding for the future project, one of which includes the famous Portuguese architect Souto Moura as well as the English company Hok and Arup and the Portuguese architectural firm Balonas, Menano e Moershel.
Other foreign companies that could be involved in the construction of the new airport include the Norwegian company Aviaplan and Cowi Ltd as well as the US group Louis Berger Group and the Spanish firm Ineco.
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