Category Archives: Albufeira

Albufeira beach regeneration project phase two

Update 12th April – they were working in front of the Inatel hotel and are now moving eastwards. The new sand is about 2 metres deep in that area and has radically changed the beach. It may be that the bar owners and concessionaires will be happier as they will have more space on which to put their sunbeds and tables. But it will be a longer walk to the sea for the customers. At least the threat of erosion and inundation has been removed. Or it is to be hoped. The test of time will be important. Will the sand survive a big storm next winter? That is the hope.

I am note sure whether the project will extend to the other beaches eg Praia da Oura and Balaia, even perhaps Olhos D’Agua. There is no information I can find. The local Communist party has been putting up a poster around town denouncing the project as ‘landfill’!

I have added some pictures, taken on Monday 11th, to the start of the album here

Update 8th April – they had to have a day off on Tuesday owing to rough seas. Work resumed on Wednesday afternoon. They are now working between the pier and the Inatel hotel and that section of beach is closed. The picture below shows the sand spreader at work at the end of the pipe from the dredger about 200 yards offshore.

Pump at work

They are working 24/7 and it looks to me like the work is ahead of schedule. For those that know Albufeira, the work is moving eastwards and is now around the pier area moving towards Inatel.

Picture slide show with captions click here; pictures taken today, Monday 4th April

The new sand is a little darker and a little coarser than the old sand. We think it will dry out and weather down to a softer texture and lighter colour. It’s being dredged from the seabed and contains a large quantity of seashells. The fragments may cause a problem for little feet.

The sand is about 6 feet (2 metres) deep and perhaps 150 feet wide (45 metres) or so wide in places.

The new beach

Albufeira's new beach

Albufeira beach regeneration project

Work has begun on a €3million Euro project to put sand back on the Albufeira beaches. The sand has gradually been washed away over the years. Also, the sea has been undermining the sandstone cliffs, causing them to become unstable and to fall.

When the work is finished, scheduled for end June 2011, the beach will be about 50 metres wider than it is at present.

The cynical amongst us note that this will create more space for tourists to sit and roast in summer.

The sand is being lifted from the sea bed a few hundred yards out to sea. It is then brought up by boat to a point 200 yards or so offshore.

It then hooks up to the end of a big pipe that was laid previously. A pump starts up and a minute or two later out of the other end gushes a mixture of sand and water. It’s all very clever. Once finished, off it goes again and the whole process is repeated. This picture shows the pumping of the sand and the levelling work. For those of you that know Albufeira, the lift up the cliff is just out of shot to the right.

Albufeira beach regeneration project March 27th 2011

[Edit 28 March 2021 – the link I originally posted here no longer works. There are some more pictures of the project in a folder here.]

Tuesday 29th March outside the Sol E Mar Hotel
Pump in action

A bike ride March 21st

A nice sunny day, not too hot but a bit windy. Need to lose some pounds and get a bit fitter, so dusted off the bike. Took a ride to Armação de Pera as a first stage. People were enjoying the beach despite the rough sea and wind.

Armação de Pera beach

Then it was back round and over to the Salgados lagoon. This is a protected natural wetland and salt marsh and is a nesting and breeding area for various species of birds. It is also a popular area for people to go walking and biking.

There is supposed to be a picture here and I don't know why it doesn't appear

Then off to São Rafael and the little beach. A hotel chain has bought the beach restaurant and installed a car park barrier so their clients get priority with parking. The hotel is 200 yards away.

Finally, back to Albufeira where the sun was shining but the sea was very rough. Work has started on a project to add sand to the beach. This has two aims, first obviously so that more tourists can sit on it and second to try to stop the sea from eroding the cliffs.

and here

I will investigate the non-appearing pictures tomorrow!

Arrived home a bit wounded but it’s all in a good cause.

Some more pictures in this album

Albufeira Sunday 13th March 2011

Some pictures I took on a little walk around town on Sunday lunchtime.

http://cid-6a2a1c7daaee306d.photos.live.com/browse.aspx/Albufeira%20March%2013th%202011

The landscaping around the N385 road is now just about complete. Now that the wildflowers and plants are growing it is starting to look quite nice. The path now provides a safe walking route between the Caliços, Camping Albufeira and Clube Albufeira areas into the old town.

Down in the old town there are some examples of the poor state of the roads. Maintenance is being neglected and potholes are growing.

The beach was quiet in the dull, rainy, weather but men were fishing off the pier.

N395 ROAD PROJECT ALBUFEIRA DECEMBER 1 2009

These pictures were taken in the early afternoon of Tuesday 1 December.
Men and machines were hard at work despite it being a holiday. The new sections of the wider road are almost complete on the southern end but work on the section between the Health Centre and Clube Albufeira is only just getting under way. Meanwhile traffic is diverted around the back roads and side streets. It is still southbound only on the N395 itself at the Albufeira end. Outbound traffic has to go up the hill to LIDL and all round the back. Also closed at the Health Centre end is the road from Pateo and Vale Sta Maria, that goes past the building shaped like an eye. I’ll bet that’s pleased them in there!
The new road that will go up the hill round the back of the health centre is taking shape. The sub-base is being built up using the spoil from the massive heaps that were deposited when the new cutting for the N395 was dug out.
The footpaths that will run along the valley beside and above the river are taking shape gradually. There seemed very little activity on the site of the new multi-storey car park at the town entrance but I will try to get a closer look later this week.
Elsewhere in town the construction of the new indoor sports centre is well under way. This is close to the existing stadium.
The skate and BMX park is in the foreground.
Also in progress is the building of the new hotel and another car park above ther pier. I should have some pictures of that by the weekend.

Albufeira Civic Works and more 15th January 2009

The first few pictures were taken on Friday 9th and most of the rest on Wednesday 14th January 2009. I hope the pictures are fairly self-explanatory and regulars will recognise the places in the pictures.
Two apologies – you can see from the numbering the order I have the pictures on my PC. When I upload them the order is jumbled by the Spaces uploader software. There is currently no means for the order to be changed! Secondly, the ‘EXIF’ information  on the pictures is wrong. My camera is lying – the pictures around town were taken between 845 and 945am and not in the afternoon. Therefore a lot of places hadn’t yet opened for business.
Here are a few notes:
There’s a new roundabout at Vale Sta Maria, at the bottom of the hill as you leave Pateo going towards Guia. It’s catching a lot of people out, as there are no direction signs! One road leads up a hill towards yet another abandoned tourist development which I hadn’t noticed before. Roads and services are all laid out but nothing but weeds growing upwards.
The Eden project development continues. These villas and townhouses are packed very closely together, so if you go there I hope you don’t snore too loudly.
The new buildings down at the fishing harbour are just about completed.
At the back of Pateo is a nice area as yet undeveloped where sheep and goats are grazed. Very rural, yet less than a mile from the tourist hustle. The sheepdog was very efficient but I saw no shepherd!
The Crowne Plaza development has been abandoned, for the time being anyway. Site is locked and closed.
In town, work along the Rua 5 de Outubro (the road to the tunnel) has moved along to the end furthest away from from the tunnel itself. This is causing some disruption to locals, as they cannot park outside their homes or even drive along the road.
Nearby, in the Travessa da Liberdade and Rua da Liberdade, temporary water mains are being laid as work begins on ripping out the old water pipes and draisn and installing new ones. Most businesses will be affected and I would imagine that many will be forced to close for a while. There are also a couple of new holes on the corner of the square heading towards Ave da Liberdade. Nothing too serious however to affect pedestrian access.
Bar Street (Rua Candido dos Reis) is undergoing similar treatment. The top surface has been removed at the end nearest the little Ali Super and the rest will follow. Rua Santana and the alleys nearby are also now being dug up to lay new water mains and drains. More holes have appeared in the Rua Sao Goncalo de Lagos and some access to the Cais Herculano is closed.
Work in that area will affect businesses. Again, some will close for a few weeks I am sure.
Work to repair the pier continues, with the nice green cranes and other stuff busy. A new storm water drain is beign laid there as well. Along the beach, it is still cut in two by the work at the old storm water outfall. I think that conditions down there will be most unpleasant at the moment. The tides are very high and it has been raining most of the past three days!
Finally the new lift/elevator shows signs of nearing completion! The machinery is installed, by the look of it and the outside area is ready. There is still some work to do down at the bottom. The high tides are washing over the path, so something will need to be done to avoid people getting their feet wet.
Next weekend I shall be taking another look at various projects a little further away from the old town. The local council is spending over 25 million Euros on assorted projects around town.

Albufeira update

These pictures were taken between between Wednesday 6th and Sunday 10th August.
I start off with a few pictures of the beaches, looking in fine form except that there were some patches of rather smelly seaweed. I did notice that the level of the sand has not quite recovered. Even at almost high tide, there were several partly exposed rocks for people to break toes and heads on.
As you can tell, it is very busy now that the holiday season is in full swing. There are several thousand more hotel beds under construction; where are they all going to sit?
If you staying up near Cerro D’Aguia, the water tower is such an obvious landmark you will never get lost!
The Cerro Grande area, at the back of the Crowne Plaza development, is rather pretty provided you look in the correct direction.
The Crowne Plaza itself is now partially coated with the concrete skim. This helps to disguise the shockingly awful standard of brickwork. I wouldn’t sneeze too hard when inside a room.
Across town, out the back from Pateo, the Eden Resort development is rapidly taking shape. It too will have white walls to blend into the countryside. Just to the left is a large open area, just waiting I am sure to be one of the next areas to be built up.
There is still the landscaping work to be done at the escalators but at least the electrical equipment has been covered up.
Also the new buildings at the fishing port are nearing completion. The next stage of development at the Marina continues. At the Largo 25 de Abril a large stage was in place for DJ concerts at the weekend. The new kiosk/cafe is open, as are at last the public toilets. The building of the new lift up by the pinnacle goes on; scaffolding now in place for the next stage of construction.
At Oceanville there are at last signs of life. Several apartments and villas are occupied by happy holiday makers and there were a few people in the hotel pool. The second phase of another 200+ apartments is almost finished. None of the shop units are occupied.
In contrast, the old mansion in the centre of town continues to decay. I was able to go inside the grounds which (of course) are now being used as a car park.
The Pau da Bandeira and Rua Amirante Gago Coutinho streetworks are virtually completed. As you can see there, remains a deal of tidying up especially down at the Inatel end. The Al Forno restaurant is open.
Grafitti has returned on the steps up at the pinnacle. The top of the pinnacle itself seems to be defying gravity, with its considerable overhang. Those in the shade underneath might be in for nasty shock!
And yet another hotel almost complete – Pedra dos Bicos (4 stars) which is next to the existing villa/apartment development of the same name.
Finally a couple of other beach shots to cheer you up.
On Thursday I will post the second instalment of my French trip.