Following four years of waiting, including 14 months of construction, on Friday the Lindora bridge was inaugurated. This is a parallel bridge to the existing over the Virilla river, that connects Lindora de Santa Ana with Belen, Heredia.
However, the completion of the project that includes the expansion of the 2.2 kilometers ‘radial’ between the Virilla and the Ruta 27 is yet to get underway. That work is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2019.
Also pending is the 1.2 km expansion from the Virilla to the cruce Panasonic.
The expansion of the road before and after the Virilla bridge are necessary to reduce congestion on this stretch of road with traffic volume of some 40,000 vehicles daily.
An example of the congestion is the time it takes from Santa Ana center to the San Jose airport. During evenings or the odd times when there is no traffic on the radial, it takes about 15 minutes to travel the 16-kilometer distance. At peak times, almost an hour.
This Friday afternoon, at 3:15 pm, Waze reported a travel time of 43 minutes. And that was with the new bridge open. Not much difference than on days prior.
