The president of Portos dos Açores, the regional public company responsible for port management, was speaking to journalists in Lajes das Flores, after the presentation of the project to upgrade the commercial port of the island, which was attended by the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba.
In October 2019, hurricane Lorenzo destroyed the pier of the port of Flores, the island’s only commercial port, which was again affected, in December 2022, due to the passage of storm Efrain.
Rui Terra stressed that the work of the port of Lajes can be expedited if the “financial contracting process is made more flexible,” reiterating the intention to complete the reconstruction by 2028.
“[What can speed up is] the financial contracting process being made more flexible as it was in the aftermath of Hurricane Lorenzo. At this point it was not yet categorized in this way. Today we had the assurance from the minister that it was going to be categorized this way, which facilitates access to financing,” he stressed.
According to him, despite the damage caused by the Efrain depression, the intention is to “maintain the ‘deadline’ [deadline] of five years for the construction” of the port.
“During the first quarter of this year we plan to launch the application for the project to execute the new pier. Going forward with that, it follows the normal schedule which is about five years of construction. We will evaluate it as the sea helps to build it”, he highlighted.
The head of Portos dos Açores revealed that the construction of the jetty and the Ro-Ro ramp at the port of Lajes were concluded, and the construction of an “emergency pier, which is now more than half finished.
Next, the “requalification of the embankment” and of the accesses from the port to the town will take place.
Earlier, on a visit to the site, the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba, assured that there are “sufficient” funds for the construction of the port of Lajes das Flores, Azores, but recognized “operational difficulties” and the need to “accelerate” the process.
On Friday, the Azores government warned of “significant delays” in “compliance” with the Republic’s funding for the works to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Lorenzo in October 2019, claiming that it has resorted to “own resources since 2021.
