Costa Rican government has spent more than $40 million on the project, which has yet to be completed.

On March 20, 1856, some 400 mercenaries from the U.S., Germany and France arrived at Hacienda Santa Rosa in northwest Guanacaste after a long day’s march, having invaded Costa Rica unopposed four days before. Little did they know they were about to face a lightning battle and a shocking defeat that would give Costa Rica its proudest war story on its own soil.

A former Costa Rican government engineer challenged a lawmaker to a fight in the street.

The former revolutionary leader known as “Comandante Cero” says resumption of works on Route 1856 is yet another provocation by the Tico government.

Investigators are looking for information on payments made for the controversial Route 1856 along the Nicaraguan border.

Costa Rica’s General Prosecutor Jorge Chavarría Guzmán said shoddy work on the failed project caused economic losses for the country of some ₡1.2 billion ($2 million).

Costa Rica’s General Prosecutor Jorge Chavarría Guzmán said he is almost ready to file charges for corruption in the failed construction of a road along the border with Nicaragua.

A Tico Times reporter opens his notebook -- and his photo file -- from a recent trip to the northern tip of Alajuela province, along the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border.

Since its inception, the road project that parallels the San Juan River and the Nicaraguan border has been a political nightmare. But for all its controversy, the road itself has largely been a mystery to the general public.

Costa Rica’s legal team on Wednesday wrapped up a first stage of hearings at The Hague-based International Court of Justice with closing arguments in a case against Nicaragua for the alleged invasion of three square kilometers of wetlands during dredging operations in the border area.