QCOSTARICA – With the objective of removing the largest number of vehicles and heavy trucks from the San José core, the government of Rodrigo Chaves expects to inaugurate the Circunvalación Norte viaduct on April 1.
The structure, 2.2 kilometers in length, the longest overpass in the country, will allow the connection of Ruta 32 in Calle Blancos with La Uruca in just five minutes.
The elevated pass will be four lanes.
This will save drivers time and money, while heavy trucks will no longer make have to enter the inner city, creating traffic congestion.
Today, travel between the La Uruca and the Ruta 32 takes about 40 minutes, more during the busiest hours.
In addition to greater traffic flow, other benefits will be generated in favor of citizen well-being, such as less stress when driving and less commuting to and from work.
The new pass that will connect the route that leads to Limón with La Uruca is part of the Circunvalación Norte project, a work that will help close the ring road that began in the late 1970s. The plan includes the completed overpasses at the rotondas La Bandera, Bicentenario and Paso Ancho.
“The idea is to decongest the area as much as possible (…) We have asked the construction consortium and the Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz to work with us. The idea is to inaugurate the pass at the beginning of April”, said Mauricio Batalla, Executive Director of Conavi.
Eight years after the approval of the Circunvalación Norte project, the promise of completing the Circunvalación ring is beginning to become a reality.
It was on June 24, 2014, when the Comptroller’s Office gave its endorsement of the project, allowing the completion of the northern section of the Circunvalación to resume.
However, the excessive bureaucracy, the expropriation of land, the preparation of the design and final studies, and the relocation of public services, in addition to certain conflicts with the Estrella-H Solís consortium, caused the construction of the work to be postponed.
Likewise, for the government, it was a real headache to relocate a handful of families who lived in a shantytown called the “Triángulo de la Solidaridad” in Tibás.
In principle, the work should have been completed in a year and a half, so its inauguration was planned for the end of 2016 or the beginning of 2017.
The delay has meant a greater cost for Costa Ricans since the project went from US$147 million to at least US$163 million.
Benefits
There are several benefits generated by the projects to decongest the roads, among them are the most important according to road experts.
- Savings in fuel and maintenance of the vehicle fleet
- Improves road safety by offering conditions with higher standards
- Speeds up the delivery of products and services
- Reduces bottlenecks, the dangerous points where robberies occur are eliminated
- Reduces the stress and anger generated by road congestion in some drivers
- Increases the capital gain of the land located on the side of the new roads
- Allows commuters to spend less time on the road and enjoy family or friends
