The PCP of Beja demanded the completion of the IP8 project between Sines and Vila Verde de Ficalho with a motorway profile without tolls, considering it a long-standing aspiration of the region's population. The PCP's Regional Organization Directorate of Beja (DORBE) states that, 19 years after the concession tender was launched by PS and six years after the opening of the link section to the A26, only two small four-lane sections have been opened, related to the Beringel and Figueira dos Cavaleiros bypasses.
The PCP acknowledges that the opening of these bypasses represents progress for the populations and the region, but states that it does not replace the complete IP8 project between Sines and Vila Verde de Ficalho. The communist structure considers that the improvement works planned for the IP8 sections, which should be a permanent obligation of Infraestruturas de Portugal, cannot be considered as a true main itinerary.
The communists accuse PSD/CDS and PS, who have governed in alternation, of carrying out propaganda maneuvers around this issue and the inaugurated bypasses. According to DORBE, the path to improving accessibility must be different and, at the current pace, the completion of the IP8 is far from happening.
Infraestruturas de Portugal announced that the sections between Ferreira do Alentejo and Beja, Santa Margarida do Sado and Ferreira do Alentejo, and Relvas Verdes and Roncão have been opened to traffic. The requalification project between Ferreira do Alentejo and Beja, which included the Beringel bypass, required an investment of 33.6 million euros, while the works between Santa Margarida do Sado and Ferreira do Alentejo, including the Figueira dos Cavaleiros bypass, mobilized 30.5 million euros.
