Grade 20 proposal sees VCI as an opportunity

A proposal by architect Marcela Percú, which was rated 20 points, sees the VCI [Internal Beltway] as an opportunity rather than a problem for Porto, suggesting diversifying the uses of the current motorway, the researcher told Lusa.

"I think it's really a matter of perspective, because we often see the VCI as a problem, and the VCI is an opportunity," said the architect in an interview with Lusa, referring to a "problem of perception" focused more on traffic congestion and less on what she considers to be the real issue: infrastructure accessibility.

The dissertation “Along the banks of the Inner Beltway: A regenerative proposal for the urban fabric in Porto” is under consideration, which was supervised by Teresa Calix, professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP), and evaluated with 20 points.

The project, nominated for the European EUmies awards in the Young Talents 2025 category, also addresses an issue of "public health, the environment, and the commitments that Portugal has established."

The work suggests "expanding accessibility in a territory built, in large part, by the condition of automobile mobility" and "taking advantage of the advantages of individual and collective transport", since "public transport has much greater capacity to carry many people".

With a "progressive reduction in speed" and a "rebalancing of this space away from cars, there may begin to be space for people to cycle and walk," the researcher explained to Lusa.

The dissertation rejects “a Manichean vision in which the car should be banned from urban areas”, arguing that the intention is to “add functions to the VCI”, as the mentality of using “one mode of travel for everything” in a big city “no longer exists”, thus giving “more options” and “more freedom for people” to choose more efficient modes of travel and avoiding them being “hostages of the car, of having a place to park, of being stuck in traffic”.

Remembering that the VCI “is a collective heritage” managed by the State through Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) and that “everyone pays for its maintenance”, currently “only people who use cars” can use it, so the work suggests that IP should contribute financially to the reconversion of the road “as compensation for the environmental and urban damage resulting from the decisions in the implementation of the VCI”.

The dissertation “has two main objectives: to neutralize the harmful effects of the Inner Beltway and to restore its banks, promoting greater environmental and urban quality.”

The project's main action involves, in the short term, "the declassification of the VCI as a highway and its gradual removal from the regional and national road system", passing it to municipal management, and suggesting a first commitment "dedicated to the margins and the second to act directly on the road infrastructure connections".

The actions on the riverbanks "were chained together to produce an increase in public service and urbanity, gradually bringing people closer to the VCI," with strategic segmentation "also to test solutions, such as the reduction of car lanes, the implementation of public transport and the introduction of crosswalks," or even the "planting of trees to create vegetal acoustic barriers."

Marcela Percú argues that the "thickness" of the VCI "is not restricted to the highway itself," reaching "a series of expectant green spaces," such as in the Regado area, advocating the creation of "small connections that allow people to travel safely and shorten distances between the two sides of the road."

Among the strategic objectives of the proposal are, precisely, "to enhance the natural structure, requalifying rivers and green areas, integrating them into a structuring network of collective spaces and mobility", as well as promoting "greater permeability for the flow of people, water and biodiversity in general" and also "balancing the supply of housing and facilities".

In the medium and long term (the project is divided into five phases until 2060), it moves on to more in-depth interventions, such as the transformation of the current road interchanges into "large blocks", surrounding public spaces and intermodal mobility centers, a metrobus in the central lane, the closure of some sections and the construction of tunnels, allowing for diversified uses on the surface of the last two.

The project by the researcher of the project STREET: Street Transformations, Rebalancing Ecology and Environment issues in Urban Territories at the School of Architecture, Art and Design of the University of Minho, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), was presented in June at the conference The Future Design of Streets, in Guimarães.