BRAZIL: A ‘conduct adjustment’ agreement was signed in early October that resolves long-lasting disputes between state transport agency Agetransp, operating concessionaire MetrôRio, and Line 4 project concessionaire Rio Barra over the suspended works for the Gávea metro interchange in Rio de Janeiro.
The document was signed by Rio de Janeiro State Governor Cláudio Castro, State Attorney General Renan Saad, as well as representatives of the State Secretariat for Transport and Mobility, the Attorney General’s Office, the State Comptroller’s Office, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, MetrôRio, Rio Barra, and construction companies OEC Engenharia e Construção and Carioca Engenharia, among others.
The agreement provides for MetrôRio to take over the construction and operation of Line 4 from the Rio Barra consortium and invest R$600m into the completion of Gávea station. Works are due to start by December 1 and be completed in around three years.
At present, MetrôRio operates the two metro lines in the city, the merged Line 1-4 and Line 2. The latest agreement also covers the extension of its concession, which would have ended in 2038 but will now run to 2048.
The Rio de Janeiro state government is due to invest another R$97m into the completion of the station and Governor Cláudio Castro said that further R$300m is allocated as a backup.
‘The signing of this agreement represents an inter-institutional milestone in which the public institutions present here being able to reach a consensus in favour of the population and the public interest on the appropriate legal solution to address the problem that has been preventing the completion of Gávea station for almost a decade’, Deputy Attorney General Joaquim Pedro Rohr said.
Separating lines 1 and 4
Construction of Gávea station had started in January 2013 as part of the Line 4 project, and the initial section of Line 4 was handed over in August 2016. This linked General Osório with Jardim Oceânico to serve venues of the Summer Olympics, while the construction of Gávea station was abandoned in 2015.
A court ruling in January 2018 prohibited contractor Rio Barra from resuming work, as members of the construction consortium had been implicated in the Lava Jato investigation into nationwide corruption.
Since March 2017, Line 1-4 has been operated as a merged service between Jardim Oceânico and Uruguai, but the two lines are due to be separated. Line 4 will turn inland at São Conrado and run to Carioca in the city centre on a new alignment, while Line 1 would be converted to a circular route by the construction of a link between Antero de Quental and Uruguai, tunnelling through the Tijuca massif. The two lines would meet at Gávea.
Completing Gávea
Tunnelling work on the Line 4 alignment from São Gonzalo to Gávea had had continued until April 2016, reaching a point 40 m short of the Gávea station worksite. The future Line 1 tunnel from Antero de Quental to Gávea remained incomplete.
The agreement includes the completion of the missing 40 m link to Gávea for Line 4, but construction of the missing link for Line 1 is not included.
As a priority, approximately 36 million litres of water will need to be pumped out from the affected worksites; this had been poured in to help protect the excavations once work ceased.
Upon completion, Gávea station is initially to be served by a Line 4 shuttle running to and from São Conrado.
