On a recent trip to San Jose, I drove on part of the new ring road (outerbelt), a modern highway that significantly reduces the time needed to drive between points in the San Jose area. First proposed in the late 1950s and begun in 1979, it is just now nearing completion. Such is the reality of infrastructure and construction in Costa Rica.
Right now, the main street of my barrio is well into the second month of excavation, for want of a better word. Heavy machinery is digging massive holes in the road and the drive to town in the daytime requires a series of detours. Late afternoon they refill the holes, which, mixed with the rains, turns the street into a bumpy, uneven pudding of mud.
The numerous small businesses that line the street are suffering; at one point, the neighborhood carnicería had a massive trench dug in front that went right up to the entrance. And for those who rely on the interurbano bus on the hour to get around town, it is necessary to slog through a couple hundred meters of slop to get to the temporary bus stop.
Word is that they are shoring up the water lines before paving the entire kilometer plus that connects our barrio with the edge of downtown San Isidro. This will be welcome as the road, which runs downhill, is so potholed and broken that speed bumps are not needed. The work will supposedly be completed before the end of the year. Nobody believes this, of course.
And it is not just roads. In the center of San Isidro de El General, there is a new building that takes up an entire square block. It is advertised as a mall. It appears as if it will be ready for occupancy any day now. It has appeared this way for some time. It has yet to open. Construction began years ago. I have no idea about the endless delay or why it has taken most of a decade to complete. There was a rumor that the Chinese financed it, but I don’t believe it; had they financed it, they likely would have overseen the construction as they did with the National Stadium earlier this century. They would have had the building completed and ready for occupancy in a year or so.
Just south of downtown is a building that houses the recent fast-food arrival, KFC. While the restaurant is open on the ground floor, construction on the above two floors goes on…and on and on. It has been at least two years since work began, and I drive or cycle past it several times a week, and am honestly mystified at the slow pace of work. I always see workers, and they look busy, but the finished product is at a date still to be determined.
Hopefully, when the two buildings mentioned are completed, they will have tenants and fare better than the strangest building in town. Anyone who lives in or visits Perez Zeledón likely knows of this building, a two-story, ten-unit office building located at the base of a steep hill as you enter town from the west. Built over 20 years ago, the building, to my knowledge and memory, has never, ever had a paying tenant. I recently took a look inside and it looks, well, like a building that has sat smoldering in the tropical heat for two decades. Who had this built and for what reason is unknown.
Such is the reality in Costa Rica. When it comes to any kind of street repairs and construction in general, you can add a minimum of one day to every day they estimate it will take to complete the job. My friend Jairo, Costa Rican through and through, calls it the Tico time rule.
