Arouca resets burned section of walkway and implements online access control – Digital Journal

Resetting Paiva Footbridge section which on Monday was destroyed by fire will cost 130,000 euros and Arouca Chamber will take to launch an online control system to the structure, today announced the municipality.

A forest fire destroyed a section of the walkway about 600 meters, between the river beaches of Vau and the Espiunca, next to Canelas river. The bridge currently has a total of about eight kilometers.

“We will quickly develop procedures to rehabilitate the structure, which is expected to cost about 130,000 euros,” says Lusa the president of the Chamber of Arouca, José Artur Neves. “The company that won the tender to build the bridge presented unit prices and we will try to make a direct adjustment based on these values,” he explains.

Anticipating that the bridge will remain closed to the public for half months, the mayor informs that in this period, then advance to “the implementation of prior control of entries in the route, as was already planned to make.”

The idea is that each visitor select an online platform the day where you want to go the eight-kilometer bridge over the river Paiva, to “avoid unknowns” about the actual number of users who are simultaneously on the course.

“Been here we had 10,000 people at once, which is not sustainable in terms of parking, hospitality and capacity of restaurants where comes running out the meat, “says José Artur Neves. “With the new platform, people indicate which day you want to come to Paiva, make the application and, with a bar code on your phone or other electronic mechanism so simple, go with him in the controls that we install on each input, so as to validate access, “he added.

The local authority has no indication of how much it will cost to implement the system, which is still being developed, but it ensures that access to the site stay will be charged.

However, the Council services will also follow the evolution of the forest cover and riparian gallery slopes of Paiva in an attempt to ensure the reforestation of areas consumed by fire and control the rock slippage.

“We want to wait for one or two of heavy rainfall, because after the fire have cleared the area, the stones may come off and sliding into the bridge, and we want to minimize that risk,” says José Artur Neves.

“But none of this shakes us,” emphasizes the mayor. “We know the territory and we knew that with this portion of forest, this could happen at any time, so the situation was safeguarded. We will have to spend time and money, it is true, but let’s also take advantage of the two-month trial with the walkway to make things even better, “anticipates

Digital Diary with Lusa

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