Douro river to make way for six lane highway

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Mario Ferreira
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Douro river to make way for six lane highway

Post by Mario Ferreira »

What the heck is this !!!!!!
... an April 1st lie ???
MF
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URL: http://www.harpers.co.uk/news/5464/Duor ... r-si.ehtml

01 Apr 2008

Douro river to make way for six lane highway

Authorities in the Douro are looking to develop the valley for easy access to Porto and the Spanish hinterland. The Douro river that has for thousands of years carved its way through the region's famous valley, would be concreted over to make way for a six-lane, high speed motorway if the plans go ahead.

“This will increase our ability to export to and from Spain, as well as improving relations with our traditionally quarrelsome neighbours,” said Richard Quaresmo of the Portuguese Tourist Office.

The new route will provide stunning views of the famous steep-sided vineyards, and bring some of the older quintas buildings into view for many tourists. “Hopefully we can even convert some of them into Burger Kings or McDonalds,” Quaresmo added.

Port celebrations

Larger Port houses were celebrating the chance to make transport of their wines easier to the UK. An unnamed source said: “It's great, and hopefully it will draw attention away from the fact that our marketing consists of just doing tastings a few times a year.”

Architects said the proposals, yet to be approved by the Portuguese government, would mean developers would have to slice through large portions of the valley sides to prevent the road from continually twisting in following its curving contours.

“It may mean knocking through vineyard walls that look like they had been there for centuries," said Norman Fisster of ZTED architects in London, “but whilst sad, large concrete pillars and vast support structures will look much better we believe.”

Paul Symington's personal boat would also have to disappear from its current position moored beneath his Graham's lodge.

It is not known what the Symington family thinks about the scheme, but developers suggested the plans opened up opportunities for all the major port producers in the area to cash in on new tourism opportunities to the area.

Grand Prix hopes

There is even talk of the Duoro putting in a bid to host the first Portuguese Grand Prix along the new six lane highway. "This would be a world's first and Bernie Ecclestone has told us he is very open to the idea if we get the go-ahead," said Quaresma.

Plans are also in place to build a Disney-style theme park based on Port and its production techniques further down the valley.

The scheme, however, needs to go through a full consultation period and anyone interested in taking part or passing comment on the scheme can do so at http://www.doh.forduoro.com.
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Andy Velebil
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Re: Douro river to make way for six lane highway

Post by Andy Velebil »

That just means we can get drunk on Port, then play "Frogger" on the new highway. Who ever makes it across and back to the Quinta wins....of course, the loser really loses :evil:

I'm all for it....bring it on :help:
Andy Velebil Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used. William Shakespeare http://www.fortheloveofport.com
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Derek T.
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Re: Douro river to make way for six lane highway

Post by Derek T. »

andy velebil wrote:That just means we can get drunk on Port, then play "Frogger" on the new highway. Who ever makes it across and back to the Quinta wins....of course, the loser really loses :evil:

I'm all for it....bring it on :help:
Andy, someone we both know would no longer need that potato gun he was looking for :lol: :lol:

Derek

PS: I got whamed with an April Fool joke earlier today on another forum where someone announced that Pink Vintage Port was to be launched in 2009 :shock: :oops:
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Roy Hersh
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Re: Douro river to make way for six lane highway

Post by Roy Hersh »

Someone has a fun but warped sense of humor! :drunk:
Ambition driven by passion, rather than money, is as strong an elixir as is Port. http://www.fortheloveofport.com
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