Costa Rican Highways
As some of you living in Costa Rica may know a big highway going from Orotina to Caldera is being made as we speak. Caldera is the main port in the Pacific Ocean. The highway that is being made will be 77 kilometers long and it is expected to reduce the trip in 45 minutes. It is expected for it to be lasting 30 months, but as all of us living in Costa Rica know it will last about 60 months…The building will be divided in 3 segments; the first one will 14 kilometers long. This one will be made from San Jose to Cuidad Colon, it will be a 3 way highway. In my mind they won´t be doing anything by making the road a 3-way road because the bridges are only 1-way. Lets hope our wonderful engineers will grab perception of this and make some big bridges. The second section of this plan will be from Ciudad Colon to Orotina with 39 kilometes of road to be made. This will be a totally new road, there has never been one going through here. The final section will occur from Orotina to Caldera, what they are going to do is to adecuate the already existent road into a one to fit the neccesities of the road. Some of the ideas this post include were taken from http://ar.news.yahoo.com/s/13022008/11/negocios-noticias-costa-rica-fcc-construye-autopista-san-jos-caldera.html and out into my own words. The tolls for this road will be of 1400 colones (approximately 2,70$).Another road that is expected to be done this year is the one San Jose- San Ramon. This will be a 58 kilometer road. During rush hours it is expected that the time will decrease in about 45-90 minutes, which is a considerably high time decrease.
Is Costa Rica deteriorating?
Many people say that there are many access roads to inner Costa Rica and that it was because of these roads that Costa Rica became one of the most attractive places for tourists. Many tourists are now complaining of the poor roads that are made in Costa Rica, there are only a few that have any type of covering such as asphalt. In a logical way you may think that these roads should be very well kept off considering the fact that only few of them are pavement. But the truth is that the roads here are like one big hole. Many tourists are questioned when they are leaving the country in the airport, they are asked to rate many things. Most of them, if not all, agree that costarican roads should be mended, fast. They also say that every time they come to Costa Rica the prices are definitely higher. All of this is worrying the tourism department in Costa Rica. We will soon find out if the MOPT (ministerio de obras publicas) is going to do something about it; for example give maintenance to the current roads and keep on building new roads, such as they are doing with the roads to the pacific.
3 Comments Add your own
Leave a comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
1.
andregil1 | April 7th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Wow! I am impressed that those highways are going to be made! They are probably going to be a huge benefit for the people that travel through those places. I really look forward to them, although it is probably going to take a very long time, as you said. I hope they ARE 3-way roads because it is incredible how bridges are only 1-way, and that makes a lot of traffic. Haha, it is actually very funny! Also, the quality of the streets… I really hope the MOPT does something about it. That way, there can be more tourism, which is essential to Costa Rica’s economy. Great entry, by the way. I liked how you went and did some research on the highways that are going to be built.
2.
photoman | April 15th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
I do not want to be mean, but if the Costa Rican government says 30 months coming from the mouths of engineers then shouldn’t we trust them? Who are you to decide how long it will take? Have you meet the qualifications needed to build a 77 kilometer highway in the jungle?
In response to Andrea’s, don’t you think people like coming here and seeing the difference between roads. People come to relax, to get away from the city, doesn’t a bad road show this?
3.
antodebedout | April 20th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
photoman, I can almost guarantee you that in 30 months this work is not going to be finished. They have already told the government that they shoudn´t be surprised in a event of the road being delayed. Most of the road isn´t being built in the jungle. In fact, no part of this roads will cross with the jungle. The 39 kilometers of road being made from Cuidad Colon to Orotina had been previously built, even the bridges are made. The only thing missing in this “new” piece of road is the actual road, everything else had been previously made.
By the way if I understood your response to Andrea do you mean people think of bad roads as another part of the “relaxing” mood created by this environment?
If I understood right, I inform you that every tourist that is interviewed when leaving the airport agree in 2 main things, Costa Rica is becoming and extremely expensive countries and that the private sector is growing enourmesly but the public (govermental) sector isn´t going anywhere.
Thank you all for responding!