Thursday, December 20, 2007

Construction of Road to Caldera To Begin on January 17

The construction of the San José-Caldera highway which is three decades in the making, will begin on January 17, 2008, the ministro de la Presidencia, Rodrigo Arias, announced yesterday.

Arias assures that all is set for the construction of the road is to begin, as the us$230 million dollars financing and the approval by the Contraloría General de la República (Comptroller's office) are all in place.

Last November 29, the Contraloría endorsed the contract the government has with Autopistas del Sol, a consortium of Spanish, Portugue and Costa Rican interests.

Arias added that the contract calls for the completion of the 77 kilometre road by 2010 and is being financed by the Caja de Madrid and the Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica (BCIE).

Autopistas has a 25 years and six months concession to recover its us$230 million dollar investment.

The new road would cut travel between San José, Caldera, Puntarenas to 30 minutes instead of the now 90 minutes, and cut in half the travel time to Playa Jacó and points in between.

The five bridges between Cuidad Colón and Orotina were built and inaugurated during the Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002) administration.

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