San Ramón highway

Local officials presented members of the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development with a series of projects in public infrastructure and public services.

Legislators put Public Works and Transport Minister Carlos Segnini in the hot seat this week, forcing him to defend the government's slow progress on promised highway projects.

The project will expand the traffic-choked section of the Inter-American highway between San José and Juan Santamaría International Airport to eight lanes, and to four lanes from the airport to San Ramón. Monday's signing ceremony was also a victory for civic groups who had battled to revoke the original concession that they said was too expensive and the result of backroom deals.

Just hours after President Luis Guillermo Solís stalled 19 bills to prioritize the passage of one, lawmakers on Tuesday evening approved a bill that authorizes reconstruction of a highway between San José and San Ramón.

Officials said they would respond to the company on Monday.

Demonstrators will hold street protests in three different locations in the Central Valley.

Costa Rica's budget for road repairs is already allocated on other projects.

Brazilian company OAS is out of a contract to renovate the San José-San Ramón Highway. But the president vows to find a new solution to a road in need of expansion.