The construction of the bridge over the River Sever, announced as a future road connection between Nisa, in Portugal, and Cedillo, in Spain, is no longer part of the ongoing work and has been considered embargoed. According to the newspaper Nascer do SOL, the project lost its main builder and faces constraints that make it impossible to meet the deadlines associated with the funds from the Recovery and Resilience Program.
The announcement to start the work had been made in September, a few weeks before the local elections, integrating the project into the local and national strategy to strengthen connections to the interior.
According to the same source, the intervention was seen as a response to an old demand and as an opportunity for cross-border articulation between Alto Alentejo and Spanish Extremadura.
Company withdrawn and deadline exceeded
The newspaper writes that ABB, responsible for construction, dismantled the yard and removed equipment, confirming that it no longer maintains a presence at the site. The publication adds that the work was awarded in October and would require an accelerated pace to meet the deadline of August 2026, an essential condition for securing European financing.
After the elections, the difficulty in moving forward with the schedule defined for the intervention became evident. A meeting in Madrid of the Mixed Portuguese-Spanish Bridges Technical Commission, held on December 2, signaled the departure of the project, by including only four cross-border connections on the agenda and excluding the Sever bridge.
Chamber without predictions and silence from the parties involved
The mayor of Nisa admitted, in a session of the Municipal Assembly, that construction is suspended and that there is no foreseeable timetable for a possible resumption. According to the same source, repeated requests for clarification addressed to the municipality and ABB were not responded to.
ABB was previously linked to the Trancão pedestrian bridge in Lisbon and has been involved in other public works.
Spaniards are unaware of cancellation
According to , the mayor of Cedillo stated that he had not been informed of the definitive halt to the work when contacted by the newspaper. The local official acknowledged delays on the Spanish side, which he described as administrative issues still being assessed by Government jurists in Madrid.
According to the same source, the mayor believed that the ministerial signature could be completed by the end of the year, allowing the process to move forward. However, the elements available in Portugal contradict this expectation.
A call expected for decades
It should be noted that the bridge was intended to unite Montalvão and Cedillo, villages that had been separated since the construction of a hydroelectric dam in 1970. The project was 160 meters long and had a deck with two lanes.
The separation between locations has a direct impact on daily connections. Crossing the approximately 15 kilometers that separate them today involves a journey of more than 100 kilometers, affecting family relationships, mobility and cross-border economic activity.
Also read:
