Estarreja high-speed line destroys 17 homes and forces two businesses to relocate

Construction of the high-speed line will demolish 17 homes and force two businesses to relocate in Estarreja. Compulsory purchases are set to begin, while work is due to start in August.

Work on the high-speed rail line is expected to begin in August, but Bruna Pereira and her mother, Marisa Ribeiro, have lived with uncertainty for three years. Residents of Avanca, in the municipality of Estarreja, they began to suspect that the country’s commitment to faster rail travel would cost them the home they have lived in for two decades. They had recently replaced the roof, were preparing to refurbish the property and hoped one day to build a barbecue area and swimming pool. The TGV brought all of those plans to a halt.

“We panicked,” says Bruna, who has lupus and whose health has deteriorated. The “anxiety” was so severe that Marisa took two months’ sick leave. “I still suffer from it today,” she says.

The timing of the project is also “complicated”, Bruna continues, because “houses are incredibly expensive”. “I’m afraid they will not give us enough time or money to leave here comfortably and find another home,” she adds, stressing that she wants to remain in the area where she has put down roots. “They have put a knife to our throats and now it is up to us to manage. Will they give us a fair amount for the house and for the damage [suffered]?” her mother Marisa asks.

Expensive alternatives

They are not the only people being “sacrificed” by high-speed rail in Estarreja. In addition to the main TGV route, an access branch to the Northern Line will be built. According to information sent to JN by the AVAN consortium, which holds the concession for the design, planning, construction, financing and maintenance of the high-speed line between Porto and Oiã, in Oliveira do Bairro, “in the municipality of Estarreja, construction of the high-speed section will directly affect 12 homes and indirectly affect five homes”. At this stage, it is not possible to specify how many are primary residences. “Two businesses in the municipality” have also been identified as being affected by the project.

Businessman Pedro Silva has already started calculating the cost. The warehouses in Beduído, used by three family businesses, will be demolished. The news did not come as a surprise: more than a decade ago, the family tried to expand the premises but was unable to do so “because people were already talking about the TGV”.

“We will have to relocate the businesses, and we have a problem because there are hardly any warehouses available to rent or buy. What little is available is extremely expensive. We have large-scale machinery that is difficult to move, as well as employees who may not agree to go too far away,” he says.

However, Pedro Silva has further reasons to be “extremely worried”. His parents’ home, next to the warehouses, will not be demolished like that of their neighbour, but the railway line will run “24 metres” from its front door. The road in front of the house will also be cut off. His parents, he says, have been “very psychologically affected” by the change.

Minimising the impact of the Estarreja high-speed line

Pedro Silva trusts in the “good faith of the company” that will handle compulsory purchases in Estarreja.

“What is about to happen is bad enough. I hope the surveyors make realistic offers and do not make people’s lives even more difficult,” the businessman says. He emphasises that he understands the benefits which some specialists say the new TGV connection will bring to the country. “I believe the Government is not undertaking a project like this lightly, just to spend European and taxpayers’ money. If it is for the good of the country, then I think it should go ahead. But they must create the right conditions and minimise the impact on the Portuguese people who will be affected.”

“At this point, the discussion is over. The line will happen.” Those were the words of Isabel Simões Pinto, mayor of Estarreja, opening an information session held by the local authority a few days ago.

“Concerns are now focused on the compulsory purchases. Some people will lose their homes, businesses will have to relocate” and land will be acquired for the high-speed line, the mayor acknowledges. The parishes most affected will be the Union of Canelas and Fermelã, Beduído and Avanca.

Independent experts to assess compensation

Álvaro Fonseca, Operations Manager at the AVAN consortium, assured attendees that there would be “transparency” and that the compulsory purchase process would be “expensive”. It will be managed by the AVEXP team, which belongs to the same consortium, while valuations will be undertaken by “independent specialist experts”. They will submit compensation proposals to be negotiated with residents and business owners affected by the project.

“Agreements are already being reached further south” and this will happen in Estarreja “in the coming months”, Álvaro Fonseca added. The first construction works on site are expected to begin in “late August, September”.

In Estarreja, the railway infrastructure will extend for 30 kilometres: 13.4 kilometres of track for the main section, plus 16.6 kilometres for the connection from Canelas to the Northern Line. The route will lie mainly east of the A1, the Northern Motorway, and will include several engineering structures, including a bridge over the River Antuã, a bridge over the River Jardim, and ascending and descending viaducts required for the junction at Canelas.

Maintenance centre to create jobs

Plans also provide for a maintenance centre, a new electric traction substation, and a train passing and stabling facility. The centre, which will maintain several parts of the high-speed line, will create around “one hundred jobs”, the consortium said.

The road network plan also includes reinstating several roads that will be severed, so that communities are not left isolated.

As it crosses the municipality, the high-speed line will pass through protected areas, requiring a series of impact-reduction measures set out in the Single Environmental Permit issued when the project was licensed. The scheme therefore includes measures to protect the Aveiro lagoon and the BioRia routes, including ecological corridors, water drainage and filtration systems, and reduced disruption to wetlands, among other actions.

Water quantity and quality was, in fact, one of the concerns raised at the Estarreja information session. One person warned of the impact construction could have on groundwater and of the risk that it could “dry up wells”, which are needed to cultivate vegetable plots and fields. In response, the company said it would monitor water throughout the progress of the works.