COSTA RICA NEWS — The city of Heredia is the preferred for Free Zone (Zona Franca) companies, where almost half (45%) are located. Heredia is also a trending favourite place for Costa Ricans to call home. However, traffic chaos difficult daily life in the Cuidad de la Flores (City of Flowers).
There are plans in place, like the US$10 million dollar project to construct 1.7 kilometres of road, which will begin construction next year, a project that is being called a timid response to the problem.
The solution would be the construction of a radial (expressway) to the autopista General Cañas, that could be part of the rebuilding of the San José – San Ramón highway. The Incofer, the national railway, is said to be readying to launch a tender for an electric train service, with the first phase targeting Heredia.
Failure to take action, the growth of real estate development, both for business and housing, could start to wane in coming years.
Most of the blame can be placed squarely on the weakness of the municipality in the execution of public work projects to decongest the daily bottlenecks in the area near the hospital, shopping centre and industrial area. The downtown core of Heredia is in total chaos, with its narrow streets, legal and illegal parking on both sides, stop signs at almost every intersection and sheer volume of traffic that needs to cross the centre town to get to the other side.
For the most part the municipality has been depending on the Ministerio de Obras Publicas y Transports (MOPT) – Ministry of Public Works and Transport – to advance projects for the construction of bridges, such as the one that connects the communities of Guararí and Real Santamaría in Lagunilla, where many of the industrial companies are located.
In the past four years, commercial, industrial and residential developers have requested permits for various projects, for a cumulative total of 5 million square metres (53.8 million square feet).
Yet, the roads in and out of Heredia remain virtually the same as 30 years ago.
With files from LaRepublica.net
