The announcement of the international public tender procedure for the construction of the bridge and its access points was published in the Official Gazette (DR).

This is the third time that the municipality of Nisa has launched the tender for the construction work on this project, agreed between Portugal and Spain at the last Iberian summit, but was unsuccessful on both previous occasions.

The base price (excluding VAT) has been steadily increasing. In the first tender notice, published in the Official Gazette at the end of March, the investment was over 12.5 million euros, and in the second tender notice, published in the Official Gazette on June 23, it rose to 16.5 million.

Now, in the new tender notice for the construction of the international bridge over the Sever River and accessibility, dated August 1 and signed by the mayor of Nisa, Idalina Trindade, and published in the Official Gazette, the base price has increased again, to 19,563,337.64 euros (excluding VAT).

The deadline for completion has been shortened from the previous eight months to six months. Interested parties must submit their bids by 11:50 PM on September 3.

Lusa contacted Nisa City Council today but was unable to speak with the mayor.

However, when the previous bidding process for the works was launched in June, Idalina Trindade explained that the new procedure was due to bidders submitting proposals "above the base price" of the initial bid.

At the time, with the new bid, which implied "a higher price," the city government was convinced it would bid on the project.

"We will bid on the project for a higher price than the initial one because the proposals were all above the base price, so we repeated the international bidding process," the mayor said at the time.

The international bridge over the Sever River, in Montalvão, in the municipality of Nisa, district of Portalegre, will connect to Cedillo, in the municipality of Valencia de Alcántara, in Extremadura, Spain.

The Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) issued a favourable, conditional Environmental Impact Statement (DIA) for the bridge construction project in February.

The project has secured funding through the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), and the project is being developed by the Nisa City Council.

According to the DIA, consulted by Lusa, the project "envisages the implementation of a road with a total length of 10,083 kilometres," to be developed in Portugal and Spain, but "a large part" of the route corresponds to the rehabilitation of Municipal Road 1139 (EM1139).

In the final section, "the opening of a new corridor, located on the Portuguese side, approximately 850 meters long next to the Cedillo dam," is planned, while the bridge will be 155.5 meters long.

The investment, a long-standing demand of the mayors of that region of Sergipe, will reduce the distance currently travelled by road between Montalvão and Cedillo by 85 kilometres.