Repairs to the trouble-plagued bridge on the General Cañas Highway, known as “La Platina” Bridge, will be one of the infrastructure projects that President Laura Chinchilla will leave unresolved.
National Roadway Council (CONAVI) Director José Luis Salas said the bridge won’t be ready until December 2014. “We will publish a public bid next week,” he added.
At the end of 2011, Chinchilla admitted that “La Platina” has been her biggest frustration and recognized it as “a monument to the failure of public works projects.”
That year, the Public Works and Transport Ministry (MOPT) announced that “final repair works” were being completed on the bridge. At the time the government had already invested $4 million in the placement of a metal grid that deteriorated just a week after it was placed.
MOPT also spent ₡30 million ($60,000) on asphalt layers, Cristian Vargas, CONAVI’s manager of roads and bridges, admitted.
Last October, CONAVI announced that a “definitive solution” for the bridge would be ready in early 2013. Now the new promise is that works will start in July, but will end in December 2014.
This means the project won’t be finished until a new administration takes office, as presidential elections in Costa Rica are scheduled for next February.
