Betar

IP2 – Évora

• Location: Évora, Portugal
• Solution: Infrastructure and Transport
• Type: Road bridges
• Promoter: IP – Infraestruturas de Portugal, SA
• Scope: Road Layout, Geology and Geotechnics, Drainage, Paving, Fences, Containment Works, Affected Services, Technical Road Channel, Lighting, Emergency Post System, Signaling and Safety
• Project: 2023/2024
• Construction: in progress
• Photography: IP – Infraestruturas de Portugal, SA
• Dimension: 12km extension

The study consists of a project to build a section of motorway, about 12.8 km long, which will be integrated into the IP2. Located in the municipality of Évora, to the east of the city of Évora, the stretch of motorway occupies territory in the parishes of N.ª Sr.ª de Machede, União de Freguesias de Bacelo e Senhora da Saúde and União de Freguesias de Malagueira e Horta das Figueiras, and has a predominantly north-south orientation.

As an assumption, this study recommends that the planned intervention should consider maximizing the use of the work already carried out under the then Baixo Alentejo Sub concession in 2011 and 2012, which is why it is predominantly developed in the channel space previously defined for this purpose.

To minimize the impacts on the peri-urban and urban areas of the city of Évora, resulting from the daily crossing of the city by medium/long-distance traffic, the construction of this section of the IP2 creates a privileged north-south connection to the major international traffic routes, resulting from its connection to the A6 motorway, improving socio-economic conditions, accessibility, safety and comfort.

Designed for a speed of 120km/h, the section connects at its origin with the Évora Nascente Node Toll Plaza on the A6/IP7, with its partial remodeling planned, and at its end with the current IP2/N18, around km 273+000, near Monte de Pinheiros.

Along the route, three junctions are to be built: Vale Figueiras junction (with diamond-type geometry), Fonte Boa do Degebe junction (with diamond-type geometry) and N18 junction (with roundabout-type geometry) and 12 engineering structures (3 special and 9 ordinary), to which new sections of road are to be added to re-establish the local road network affected by the construction of the development.

The special engineering structures are designed to cross the Ribeira do Freixo, the River Degebe and the Ribeira de Nossa Senhora do Carmo (a tributary of the River Degebe), and there are also plans to demolish a current engineering structure that was partially built as part of the Baixo Alentejo Sub concession.

The route also intersects three railway lines, namely the Évora branch, the Sines/Badajoz line and the Reguengos branch, which it crosses using engineering structures.

The platform is defined by a standard 27-metre-wide cross-section, consisting of two carriageways, each with two lanes (3.75m wide), with an inner verge (1.00m wide) and an outer verge (3.0m wide), and a central grass verge (4.00m wide).