Vehicle restrictions to be suspended Friday for holidays; most tolls free starting on Holy Thursday

A restriction that prohibits vehicles from entering downtown San José on specific days according to the last digit of a license plate will be suspended on Friday and will resume on Monday, April 21, Traffic Police said on Tuesday. That means that all drivers can access the city this Friday.

This Friday, April 11, Costa Rica commemorates its national hero, Juan Santamaría, and Easter Holy Week follows. That prompted Traffic Police to launch special operations on the country’s main routes as a large number of vehicles likely will be leaving San José starting Thursday night.

“We are trying to facilitate things for many families and groups of friends leaving the capital for traditional vacation destinations outside the Greater Metropolitan Area,” Traffic Police Director Germán Marín said.

In that same spirit, the National Roadway Council on Tuesday said that government-run tolls will stop collecting from noon on Holy Thursday (April 17) and will resume on Saturday, April 19 at 6 a.m.

Tolls will be free on the General Cañas Highway from San José to Alajuela, on the northern section of the Inter-American Highway in Guanacaste, at Florencio del Castillo Highway between the capital and Cartago, and at the Braulio Carrillo Highway connecting San José with the Caribbean province of Limón.

Public Works and Transport Minister Pedro Castro said the ministry decided to suspend toll collection on those highways to facilitate travel to and from tourist destinations across the country.

However, toll booths on Route 27, the main highway connecting San José to the Pacific province of Puntarenas, “will operate as normal,” Montserrat Courrau, a spokeswoman for Autopistas del Sol, the private contractor that administers the highway, said.