Rio Government promises 5 new subway stations up to the begging of the Olympic Games

The City of Rio de Janeiro has received R$ 17 billion for projects aiming at an extension of its deficient transportation system up to the Olympic Games, but specialists asses the choice of Barra da Tijuca as the destination of the Olympic Park and of the majority of resources strengthen an excluding-model of city, that will not bring benefits to the greatest part of the population.

The greatest investment is in the subway, with a line of 16 kilometres that will connect Ipanema, in the southern region of the city, up to Barra, in the western region, with a cost of R$ 10,5 billion. For the Brazilian Institute of Architects (IAB), it would have been much more important and cheaper to transform the main branches of suburban trains into surface metro systems with quality stations.
“What makes Rio’s City Hall prioritize urban mobility public investments exclusively directed to Barra da Tijuca, which has only 300 thousand dwellers? A simple reformulation of the railway system, enabling its integration with the subway system, would benefit more than four million people that live in Rio outskirts and many other people that live in the metropolitan area, leaving much more fruitful legacy for the city and its population”, assessed the architect and urban planner Luiz Fernando Janot, member of IAB’s Superior Council.

Accordingly to Janot, “real estate interests overshadow those of the greatest part of population”. He used to defend the realization of the games in the port region.

For the executive director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policies, Clarisse Linke, mobility projects strengthen two models of city that compete between themselves. “There was an expectation that a dense and compact model of city would be prioritized, investing in the downtown region and in northern region, the most populous one, but there was an option for maintaining and encouraging the expansion for Barra da Tijuca and the metropolitan area of Jacarepaguá”. Accordingly to her, the opportunity brought by the Olympic Games has not been fully tapped. “What will be delivered is just a beginning, not the end of anything”. For Clarisse and Janot, there has been a lack of dialogue with the population.

The State Government says five subway stations will be ready for the Olympic Games. The station of Gávea has yet been excluded from the chronogram and might only be concluded in December, 2016.

BRT – The city administration bet on the construction of 150 km of exclusive corridors for express buses, an investment of R$ 5,7 billion. The four BRTs leave from the western zone, the headquarters of the games. Those that are already operational are presenting problems such as overcrowding during peak times, accidents and run overs – at least 22 people died since 2012. Accordingly to the City Hall, BRTs will transport 1,4 million people per day.

Downtown and the port region will receive a Light Rail Vehicle (LRV), a project of R$ 1,2 billion. Formed by companies that already own the ferries, subway, trains and bus services of the city, the winning consortium will explore the system for 25 years. The City Hall says the equipment, with 28 kilometres of lines, will be able to transport up to 285 thousand people per day.

The plan for the Rio Branco avenue, where LRV will pass through, has already changed a couple of times. In 2010, mayor Eduardo Paes (PMDB) said the road would be transformed into an “urban park” and closed for cars, motorcycles and buses. He afterwards gave up of this and said that only the final part of the avenue, near the region of Cinelândia, would be closed. Now the project expects buses ride on two lanes in the direction of Praça Mauá-Aterro do Flamengo.

NO LUXURY – The president of the Municipal Olympic Company (the institution responsible for the management of the main constructions of the Olympic Games), Joaquim Monteiro de Carvalho, told our reporters that the projects do not show up for their luxury or architectural beauty, yet for being “lean” and functional. “They are realistic towards the needs of the country. No one is developing arenas in order to win a design award”.

The expenditure with the works for the Olympic Games, accordingly to the data published in January in the Responsibilities Matrix, is estimated on R$ 37,7 billion – a value much more inferior to the R$ 121 billion that were invested by Russia in order to host the Winter Olympic Games of Sochi  last year. Accordingly to Joaquim, one of the advantages of Rio is that 55% of the sport facilities were already operational. He is making reference to Maracanã, sambódromo, Maracanãzinho, Riocentro and Engenhão.

The total cost of the Olympic Games can be divided into three parts: R$ 24,1 billion for infrastructure works paid with public money; R$ 6,6 billion will be consumed for the rebuilt and refurbishment of competition areas (R$ 4,24 billion from the private sector and R$ 2,37 billion from public resources); and R$ 7 billion is the revenue forecast of the Rio-2016 Committee when it comes to the private sector, in order to pay for the operation.

He stresses that what differs the Rio Games from those of London (2012) is the diversity of competition areas. In the British capital, the revitalization of a poorer and more peripheral neighbourhood was prioritized. “Now we are not privileging only a region. This is a gain to the whole city”.