The Vila Nova de Gaia City Council approved this Friday, unanimously, a proposal for the elimination of toll gantries on the A29 and A32 motorways to be included in the 2027 State Budget. The approved proposal includes the elimination of the gantry on the A29 in Gulpilhares, which had already been made public previously by the municipal president, Luís Filipe Menezes.
President Menezes, from PSD/CDS-PP/IL, stated that this gantry is an injustice for users, namely for the people of Gaia, suggesting that the government and all political forces with seats in the Assembly of the Republic approve this measure. The PS councilor, João Paulo Correia, explained that the proposal to eliminate the gantries on the A32, which crosses the municipality in the parish of Olival, came from the socialists, and an agreement was reached for a common proposal approved unanimously.
The gantry on the A29 was installed in 2010 on the only municipal road access to the southern parishes of the municipality, provoking several protests and leading many drivers to divert through interior streets to avoid payment. At the time, Menezes sent a letter to the Minister of Public Works stating that the gantry's location "is wrong" and causes "serious harm to residents".
Five years later, under the socialist Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues' leadership, the council created an alternative to the gantry, after the "miserable" impact it had on the municipality, forcing residents to use secondary roads. The work, an alternative connecting road from Rua da Ameixoeiras to Avenida Combatentes do Ultramar Português, was completed in January 2017.
