Porto City Council launches €1.95m tender for escalators and new square in Virtudes

Tender for escalators linking Rua dos Armazéns and Fonte das Virtudes

Porto City Council has opened a public tender worth €1.95 million to build escalators and create a new square in the Virtudes area, connecting Rua dos Armazéns to the Fonte das Virtudes, which is also set to be refurbished.

In a note sent to newsrooms today, the council says the plan involves “an investment of almost two million euros in the installation of four sections of escalators”, intended to provide “smoother mobility between the lower and upper areas” of the historic city centre-specifically between Rua dos Armazéns and the Fonte das Virtudes.

The works will be managed by the municipal company Gestão e Obras do Porto (GO Porto).

New square and restoration of the 17th-century Fonte das Virtudes

According to the council, the contract “includes works to renew the historic Fonte das Virtudes, dating back to the 17th century, where a new square will be created”.

“The space will bring a new setting to Calçada das Virtudes and serve as a resting spot for those making the uphill walk. With new granite paving and landscaped areas, the aim is to give greater prominence to the beauty of the fountain and turn a place that is currently run down and forgotten into a pleasant, dignified space for pedestrians,” the city council states in its announcement.

Wider mechanised routes strategy and the Virtudes garden connections

The municipality led by Pedro Duarte (elected by the PSD/CDS-PP/IL coalition) adds that this intervention forms part of “a strategy to mechanise routes along the city’s east–west axis”, as happened “in the projects in Miragaia (Escada do Monte dos Judeus, completed in 2020) and at Palácio de Cristal (a lift that will connect Rua da Restauração to the gardens)”.

In the descriptive and supporting statement for the architectural project-signed by the studios Pablo Pita and depA Architects-the designers explain that “taken as a whole, the intervention in this area aims to make the entire Virtudes garden more fluid and easier to access up to the level of the Fonte das Virtudes”.

They note that “only the development and implementation of the crossing from here up to the level of the Miradouro das Virtudes” remains, referring to the “absence of the lift that was removed compared with the earlier version” of the project.

“This final connection stage should be strategically delivered by the municipality at a later phase, since it is understood to be absolutely essential to close the mobility loop and link the whole project as a complete system,” the architects argue.

Regarding the new square planned in front of the Fonte das Virtudes, the project says it “creates an entirely new sense of completion at the end of the Calçada das Virtudes axis (today overly road-like in profile and materials, with a degraded and discordant setting and, above all, without a coherent design and finishing element for the whole ensemble)”.

“The new design seeks to restore dignity to the historic fountain, while also giving the surrounding space a more pedestrian-friendly character that fits both its integration into the organic atmosphere of the Jardins das Virtudes and the overall strategy of the proposed new pedestrian routes,” with the square operating “at the same time as a dignified end point for the route now designed for those climbing up from Rua dos Armazéns in Miragaia and as the urban and pedestrian finish to the Calçada da Virtudes axis”.

Accessibility framework and delivery timetable

However, the project “does not comply with the legal and regulatory standards of Decree-Law 163/2006, of 8 August (Accessibility Regime), under paragraph 5 of Article 10 of that Decree-Law, since the specific nature of the project and the site’s terrain make compliance with the technical accessibility standards impracticable”, although it “provides for compliance with the technical accessibility standards that can be applied in specific cases”.

The council says the works have an execution period of 365 days, and bids for the contract can be submitted until 20 June.