Carvoeiro Upgrades

[Gambrinus]

This week I interviewed the President of The Junta in Carvoeiro about the plans for the develpment of the Carvoeiro Area.

We talked about traffic and parking, some of you will have already seen the new cobble speed bumps on restaurant hill, several other will be placed at strategic locations.

Further projects include widening the sidewalks on the inbound road (the road itself will be just wide enough for heavy vehicles to pass) the sidewalk will be flanked by heavy ornamental concrete, so no more stop and shop untill the square. For these works the outbound road will become two-way, so heads up when leaving town towards Lagoa.

The parking silo behind the market opposite the east entrance to Monte Dourado has been approved, this silo comes as a much-needed releif for the town centre as parking is already a nightmare and it is not even August yet.

Further to the redesign of the centre, I also inquired as to the progress on peripheral changes around Carvoeiro. The president confirmed that the road names where being attributed from the centre outwards, but they should reach Rocha Brava, Carvoeiro Clube and the Clube Atlantico in 2009.
He went on to describe plans for a scenic walkway that is going to lead east from the Algar Seco all the way to Benagil and Marinha beach. Secure pathways or decking planks along the cliff line should provide for several kilometers of coastline walkways, deviating only to avoid the steep cliffs around the coves.
West of the Algar Seco will see the construction of an amphitheartre and more walkways between the Algar and the church - this pavillion will host events throughout the season.

With approval in place for all these projects, Carvoeiro should see some considerable transformation over the next 5 years.

[Gazza]

Tks for the update G, the plans appear to be quite well advanced. With regards the parking silo, are they proposing access from the hill by the market or from the other side?

G

[Gambrinus]

From what I understood, the market hill road will provide access to the car park.

[holiday1]

...the sidewalk will be flanked by heavy ornamental concrete, so no more stop and shop untill the square. ...

Gambrinus, could you please just clarify that part? And did you get any indicative timescales?

Thanks

[Gambrinus]

...the sidewalk will be flanked by heavy ornamental concrete, so no more stop and shop untill the square. ...

Gambrinus, could you please just clarify that part? And did you get any indicative timescales?

Thanks

The plan is, that concrete barriers will be placed on the edge of the sidewalk to stop cars climbing the sidewalk to park - he did not give me specifics about the design, just that they would be ornamental and not like motorway barriers.

The works on the inbound road are scheduled for this winter, but as far as a global timescale is concerned, seeing that this is Portugal and things don't always go according to plan, the president did not go as far as giving a fixed timescale. "We will see a lot of change in Carvoeiro over the next 5 years" he said.

[SJ & RE]

Sounds fab

[e-richard]

Hate to sound like a doom merchant, and I am genuinely in favour of improvements, but do we have any idea how sympathetically they will be implemented ?

When G talks about a parking Silo, will we see a monstrous concrete block ?
A walkway along the cliffs from Algar Seco sounds idyllic, but again excessive use of concrete and wood is potentially ugly rather than scenic.

We only have to look at some of the very plain blocks that have been built in the centre (e.g. Tess + Chinese restaurant) to see how the character of the "village" can be ruined without good planning controls.

Will there be any publicly viewable plans or drawings ?

Mind you, if ugly, will we be able to do anything about it anyway ?

[bifas 1st darling!]

Are elections coming up???

[Gambrinus]

Hate to sound like a doom merchant, and I am genuinely in favour of improvements, but do we have any idea how sympathetically they will be implemented ?

When G talks about a parking Silo, will we see a monstrous concrete block ?
A walkway along the cliffs from Algar Seco sounds idyllic, but again excessive use of concrete and wood is potentially ugly rather than scenic.

We only have to look at some of the very plain blocks that have been built in the centre (e.g. Tess + Chinese restaurant) to see how the character of the "village" can be ruined without good planning controls.

Will there be any publicly viewable plans or drawings ?

Mind you, if ugly, will we be able to do anything about it anyway ?

As far as the scenic walkways are concerned, I think they will have a limited impact on the environment as there will only be structures built with safety in mind ie. wooden fences along the cliff line to secure the drops and wooden planks where the terrain is unstable. There are already a number of perimeter fences in place around the blowholes - at about 1 meter height they can hardly be described as obtrusive.
Imho, the bebefits for pedestrians and cyclists (who will finally have a safe place to ride) vastly outweigh the possible impact.

A functional building like a parking silo rarely meets aesthetic requirements, but from a practical point of view I think you have to agree that it is a necessity.

All council public work plans should be available at town council as they have been approved at council meetings at some point. Personally I am happy to give the president the benefit of the doubt when it comes to aesthetic planning, because there is nothing we can do to change it anyway.

[Bruce Wallis]

I love the walk from Algar Seco all the way to Benegil and beyond exactly the way it is.
It's beautiful, natural, yes in places, testing.

It's one of the reasons that our lovely stretch of coast is SO special.

To homogenise that would be a crime.

[White Rabbit 2]

My first thought is no dont start ruining the natural beauty of the area. When the first modernised pria da rocha beach , and gale etc and put the space huts up I hated it , but the walkwaysturned out to be fantastic.as one of the registered disabled , who does have problems walking at times I think the improvements will actually be of great benefit to all , especially those who cant climb like mountain goats. And the wooden board walks actually encourage people onto a specific walkway and not to clamber all over the place damageing plant life etc. So bring it on , well done the council ( ok 5 years of disruption ).