José Manuel Bolieiro said yesterday that the Coalition Government has defined access to Povoação as a “priority,” “unlike the Socialist option that excluded the municipality from the SCUT, turning it into a kind of tenth island.”
The leader of the PSD/CDS/PPM Coalition was speaking to the media at the end of a visit to the construction work on the Furnas bypass, a project promoted by the Azorean government and financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), in which he was accompanied by the candidates for the São Miguel constituency in the regional legislative elections on February 4th.
José Manuel Bolieiro pointed out that “the candidates for the island of São Miguel are seeing what is being done, based on the initiative of this political project that has been governing for the last three years, and in which there is work done and being done.”
The investment in the construction of the Furnas bypass, under the PRR, amounts to 6.47 million euros and is part of the project to upgrade the road link between that parish and the town of Povoação, the county seat.


“This is a project included in the 2024 budget proposal and whose second phase includes the connection between Furnas and Lomba do Cavaleiro, guaranteeing different, better accessibility and including Povoação in the accessibility conditions of the island of São Miguel,” added José Manuel Bolieiro.
According to the leader of the PSD/CDS/PPM Coalition, “We are now urgently promoting and working with conviction on the importance of investing in the island of São Miguel and in better accessibility to bring all the parishes and municipalities closer together, with better accessibility and safety than is currently the case.”
“In the meantime, while the work is going on, access to Furnas, Vila da Povoação and Ribeira Quente will not be compromised,” he concluded.

in Correio dos Açores, Natlaino Viveiros – director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Cultures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance)  at California State University, Fresno–PBBI thanks the sponsorship of the Luso-American Development Foundation from Lisbon, Portugal (FLAD)