UPDATED IOC Visits Rio Over Line 4 Progress

(ATR) A spokesperson from the IOC tells Around the Rings that they remain confident the Rio de Janeiro line 4 metro will be completed ahead of the 2016 Games.

The spokesperson added that Phillip Bovy, IOC chief consultant for transport, was in Rio for a "planned visit" with the Rio state government.

Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported on Feb. 19 that Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes sent a communication to the IOC sharing contingency plans if the metro was not completed in time. The report showed that Paes proposed an expansion of bus rapid-transit lanes in Rio to connect the South Zone of the city to the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood where the Olympic Park is located.

A spokesperson for the Rio State Secretary of Transportation said to ATRin a statement that there is no change to the July 1 opening date for line 4 of the metro and the project will be completed on time.

"The work is on schedule and has reached 90 percent completion," the spokesperson said to ATR. "Only two hundred meters of tunnels remain to be completed in the bar-Ipanema axis, which will be available for public use in July. Only 3 km of track remain to be installed."

In December, former transport secretary Carlos Osorio told ATR that the state government had received "presidential assurances" that all funds for the metro project would be delivered and the project would be finished before the Olympics.

Osorio officially stepped down from his position of state transport secretary on Feb. 22. Osorio is joining the Brazilian Social Democracy Party in preparations of the 2016 Rio municipal elections and 2018 federal elections, which is the reason for his departure.

He will resume his seat in the Rio de Janeiro state legislature, and be confirmed by party officials at a ceremony on Feb. 25 in Brasilia. Rodrigo Vieira, the former President of the Superintendent of State for Sports of Rio de Janeiro, has assumed Osorio’s spot as transportation secretary.

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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