Costa Rica concession council to oversee redesign of road corridor

Costa Rica’s concession council will oversee the redesign of the San José-San Ramón corridor, as the Ruta Uno trust fund, originally contracted to build and manage the infrastructure, is being terminated. 

Dahianna Marín Chacón, a technical secretary at the council, said the entity was coordinating design optimization with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei). 

“An optimization of the design is being carried out and I am the one in charge of it. The minister made the decision to cancel the concession due to the social resistance the project encountered, and it will all be paid for by the state,” she told BNamericas on the sidelines of the PPP Américas 2023 event hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank in Panama. 

Marín added that Cal y Mayor is tasked with the redesign, for which it has 12 months. 

“The [first] design required a US$750mn capex, and we believe it can be optimized to lower the amount to US$550mn or US$600mn under a traditional scheme,” she said. But Marín added that a concession would have been better.

“I personally do not agree [with the minister’s decision] because it is the most concessionable route in Costa Rica. I would have liked to run a hybrid scheme with contributions from the State and private entities,” she said. 

Cabei will provide US$500mn-US$550mn. Works include widening and upgrading the General Cañas and Bernardo Soto highways, known as the San José-San Ramón road corridor.

The previous design involved:

– 1.6km stretch 1 Sabana-Circunvalación to be widened to three lanes in each direction;

– 12.6km stretch 2 Circunvalación-Airport to be widened to four lanes in each direction; 

– 5.2km stretch 3 Airport-San Antonio del Tejar to be widened to three lanes in each direction;

– improvements like new intersections, bus bays and bridges along 34.8km stretch 4 San Antonio del Tejar-San Ramón.