Guimarães approves €2.6m contract for Reboto–Pevidém cycle path

Guimarães City Council is moving ahead with the construction of a cycle route between Reboto, in São Martinho de Candoso, and the town of Pevidém. The contract, awarded on Monday during the Executive’s meeting for €2.6 million, has a delivery period of 545 days - around a year and a half.

Guimarães Reboto–Pevidém cycle path: route and aims

Ricardo Araújo, the Mayor of Guimarães, said the award will make it possible to “start quickly” on what the council sees as a strategic project for the municipality. The alignment runs through the parishes of Candoso S. Martinho, Selho S. Jorge and Selho S. Cristóvão.

The new infrastructure will extend the existing eco-trail (which crosses Veiga de Creixomil), connecting the area around the City Sports Park to the River Selho leisure park. The aim is to encourage active travel between the city and Pevidém.

False start

The project has been anticipated for more than a decade. The first public tender for building the cycle lane was launched in July 2021, but it was closed in January 2023 without an award after Guimarães municipality acknowledged it still did not have all the land required to proceed.

Plans for the cycle link between Reboto and Pevidém date back to 2011, following work carried out by the MAPa2012 division. That unit was created in 2009 as part of preparations for Guimarães as European Capital of Culture and was wound up in 2013.

Other works approved by the Executive

At the same meeting on Monday, the Executive also approved the start of the process to refurbish the municipal road linking Ronfe and Gondar, an intervention estimated at €1.1 million. It also took the first step towards building the new sports hall at EB 2,3 João de Meira School by launching the public tender for the works, valued at around €4.2 million.

Ricardo Araújo added that the new municipal workshops are expected to be finished in August, running one month behind the planned schedule. Alongside the construction projects, the Executive approved the second phase of municipal cultural support, covering projects of municipal and countywide interest, as well as support for sports infrastructure.