Rain-Damaged Roads
Cause Countrywide Crisis
By Rebecca Kimitch
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net

Transport Minister Randall Quirós reiterated yesterday that Costa Rica 's crumbling roadways have caused the worst infrastructure crisis the county has seen in 30 years.

Six weeks of nearly continuous rain on the Pacific coast, as well as last year's earthquake on the same coast in Parrita and flooding in January on the Caribbean coast, are to blame for the crisis, Quirós told the press following President Abel Pacheco's weekly Cabinet meeting.

The total cost for “rehabilitation of roadway infrastructure” is nearly ¢28 billion ($57 billion), with most needed for road repair, and smaller amounts for bridge, dam and storm-drain repair.

Where these funds will come from has yet to be determined. During the Cabinet meeting, Quirós and Alejandro Molina, director of the National Roadway Council (CONAVI), asked the heads of autonomous state institutions to review their budgets to consider whether they can contribute resources to the National Emergency Commission (CNE), which is distributing funds for the road repairs. Municipalities are also being asked to contribute to the CNE fund.

CONAVI and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) have already spent ¢5.5 billion ($11 million) and have ¢2 billion ($4.1 million) more budgeted to remedy the situation, Quirós said.

“All of us are affected – farmers to get their products to their target markets, tourists who enter the country to visit natural attractions, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), which needs to access its infrastructure,” Quirós said, adding that by next week he should have a better idea of where more funds will come from.

Approximately 3,000 kilometers of roads in 41 cantons have been affected, including 600 kilometers of national and local roads in Guanacaste and 480 kilometers in the Central Pacific.

“More than 50% of the national area is affected at this time,” Molina said.

The crisis is primarily along the Pacific, from border to border, which faced nearly six straight weeks of rain starting Sept. 19, Quirós said.

Although the hurricanes that have struck the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in recent months haven't directly hit Costa Rica, they have brought torrential rains to the Pacific, explained Luis Diego Morales, of the CNE.

Molina said the top priority is making roads passable and safe, including filling potholes, and later further repair and rehabilitation of roads will be addressed.