Of the planned 12 kilometers of this route, only the section between Penafiel and Rans was built, with the section that will go from Rans to Entre-os-Rios still missing, which led the Minister of Infrastructure to say that the State had failed doubly.
“The State failed to monitor that bridge, and that’s why we had the victims, we had the tragedy, but then it failed when it committed to the populations and the population of Castelo de Paiva, with the people of Paiva, to create a set of infrastructures that were of enormous justice”, mentioned.
The government official said that the Government must be a good person and keep its word, promising that it will not rest until it sees the machines on the ground.
“I myself want to see the machines on the ground and I want to see the work happen. And then, we can say that the social contract we signed with the Paivenses had a guaranteed commitment. And only then. (…) I will not rest until the works are on the ground”, he stated.
Regarding the bypass to Estrada Nacional (EN) 222, another of the promises made after the collapse of the bridge, Pinto Luz said that the work has already been tendered and should be tendered in June.
On the same occasion, the mayor of Castelo de Paiva, Ricardo Cardoso, welcomed the minister’s commitment to advancing these works, adding that, 25 years later, the fulfillment of these promises long awaited by the population is finally close.
“These infrastructures are not just roads. They are instruments of territorial cohesion, they are factors of economic development, they are security conditions, they are opportunities to settle the population, attract investment and create jobs”, highlighted the mayor, for whom these promises will only gain full credibility in the eyes of the population when they are transformed into visible works on the ground.
The Hintze Ribeiro Bridge, which connected Entre-os-Rios, in the municipality of Penafiel, district of Porto, and Castelo de Paiva, in the district of Aveiro, collapsed on the night of March 4, 2001, dragging a bus carrying 53 passengers and three cars with six people into the waters of the Douro River. There were no survivors.
The official ceremonies to mark the date include a mass in honor of the victims, the throwing of flowers at the time of the accident, next to the Douro River, and the inauguration of a memorial (25 years) in the parishes involved.
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