Film Festival Prisma Femenino
Features “Deseando Amar,” at 3, 5, 7 p.m., Sala Garbo, 2222-1034.

Music at Dusk
National Symphony, 5:10 p.m., National Theater.

Opera Café
With soprano María Marta López, opera, dinner and champagne, 7:30 p.m., La Luz Restaurant , Hotel Alta, Alto de las Palomas, Santa Ana, reserve at 2282-4160, info@thealtahotel.com.

10th International Baroque Music Festival
UNA Guitar Orchestra, Izquierdos guitar duo, Nitsuga and Unacústico guitar quartets, 7:30 p.m., Santa Ana Church; pianist Edwin Marín, oboists Miriam Padilla and José Angel Abrego, 7:30 p.m., Alliance Française; Camino y Voces de Venezuela, 7 p.m., Capilla del Seminario Mayor, San José's Paso Ancho.

TURRUBARES, Costa Rica – The collapse of a bridge last week that resulted in the death of five people could have been avoided had the government taken heed of an engineer's report carried out in 2006, the report's commissioner has claimed.

The report, complete with photographs, highlighted a series of structural problems and warned of a possible collapse of the bridge over the Río Tárcoles, on the way to the central Pacific town of Orotina.

The morning of Oct. 22, the report's predictions became frighteningly real. One of the cables of the bridge snapped under the weight of a full school bus, which fell six meters into the water.

“It was obvious the bridge was in need of attention, it was more than 80 years old,” Saborio said.

“Many of our visitors used to cross that bridge to get to the park, so we, in conjunction with the municipality, paid for an engineer to carry out a survey, which we sent to (the road authorities) CONAVI, but nothing was done about it.”

Despite those warnings in September 2006, the only work carried out on the bridge in the three years until its collapse was the replacement of 200 wooden planks lining the bridge floor, repairs to a left hand support pillar and a reduction in vehicle weight allowance, from nine tones to four.

Annotated pictures of the support cables connected to concrete blocks at either end of the bridge explained how “years of strain caused by heavy vehicles could have caused severe interior damage and could lead to a collapse of the entire structure,” the report contended.

It concluded: “Considering the level of use and nature of the vehicles that cross the bridge have changed considerably in the last few years, we consider necessary the building of a new, two-lane concrete and steel bridge with side barriers and space for pedestrians.”

Following the bridge's collapse, the Public Works and Transport Ministry called on a Japanese technical expert who will supervise the repair of 10 Costa Rican bridges, earmarked as “priority,” throughout the country.

The expert, experienced in the design of steel and concrete bridges, will be working with engineers starting next year.

See the Oct. 30 print or digital edition of The Tico Times in-depth coverage and analysis.

Traffic crawled along Wednesday morning – in some places it stood still – as private transportation companies tried to drive home a point about a bill before Costa Rica's Legislative Assembly.

Blocking key avenues into the city from Escazú, La Uruca, Heredia and Cartago and disrupting traffic in other parts of the country on Wednesday morning, private car service drivers, known as porteadores, protested a possible end to their business.

The law sitting in the Legislative Assembly would have given exclusive rights to licensed taxi drivers, eliminating the porteadores' ability to legally transport people. Not only would the law stop their services, but private ambulances, tourist transport and student vans also risked termination, said Víctor Salazar, who owns a private transportation company.

“Only public transport (such as red taxis) would have been permitted,” he said. “People didn't think this was very serious, but if it was passed, private ambulances wouldn't be able to do their work.”

Salazar, whose company Transportes San Jorge offers limousine pick-ups, food deliveries and van services, said that thanks to the demonstrations on Wednesday, legislators moved the issue from first place on the agenda to 120th, buying another four years.

“We are satisfied with the outcome today,” he said. “It was a success.”

Yet, not surprisingly, the demonstration got a thumbs down from legislators and government officials.

“It was unacceptable,” said Rodrigo Arias, minister of the presidency. “I hope it doesn't happen again. The solution is not in the streets. The solution is conversation with legislators.”

Costa Rican Social Security System (Caja) officials closed Ricardo Saprissa Stadium Wednesday, claiming the San José soccer team owes a ₡ 720 million (more than $1.2 million) debt, just hours before Saprissa was set to play neighboring rival Liga Deportiva Alajuelense.

The time of closure was not accidental. Manuel Ugarte, the Caja's finance director, explained that his administration chose to shut down the stadium in the northern San José district of Tibás on the day of a game so that the debtor “would feel the impact” of the measure.

Ugarte said Club Deportivo Saprissa's owner, Mexican businessman Jorge Vergara, reported lower salaries to the Caja than his players were actually earning during the period of October 1999 to August 2004.

“Nice way to show off with sports,” the team's lawyer, Jorge González, remarked sarcastically about the Caja's efforts to make an example of Saprissa. He claimed that Saprissa is debt free and that the case of its alleged debt has sat unresolved in the courts for three years.

“(The stadium was) closed because the Caja feels like it. Saprissa is absolutely up to date with its regular and monthly payments,” González said.

“As the administration (of the Caja) has state authority to execute (a closure) without waiting for a verdict” from the court, the lawyer said. “This is a measure that's draconian, arbitrary and more akin to dictatorial regimes.”

The game between old rivals – being billed as el Clásico – has been postponed until a future, as of yet undefined date. Alajuelense has requested the game be played Thursday night at the José Rafael Fello Meza Stadium in Cartago, east of San José, according to the daily La Nación.

Caja officials said the closure is not meant to affect the Costa Rica-Uruguay soccer match at Saprissa scheduled for Nov. 14, tickets for which went on sale Wednesday.