A newly expanded five-lane bridge over the Corrogres River on the Lindora bypass is now fully open to traffic, as project officials say it will ease one of the busiest chokepoints between Santa Ana and Lindora west of our capital and which the government is holding up as a model for future infrastructure work.
The new crossing replaces a narrow two-lane passage on National Route 147, a corridor used daily by tens of thousands of drivers moving through one of Costa Rica’s busiest commercial and business zones. The bridge measures 15 meters in length and sits atop 13 concrete arches that support the roadway above.
According to the National Roadway Council (Conavi), it is the first public road infrastructure project in the country to be financed entirely by private investment while remaining under full state technical supervision — an arrangement officials view as a potential template for accelerating stalled road projects elsewhere.
The work was carried out through a partnership between Conavi and the Beta-ADB Consortium, which financed the project with an investment of close to $1 million. The bridge has been carrying traffic since December, but Conavi did not formally accept the works until this past May, once compliance with design specifications, quality standards, and other technical requirements had been verified.
Work extended well beyond the span itself. Crews added roughly 300 meters of new roadway at the northern end of the bridge, between the river crossing and the area near the El Lagar depot, to prevent traffic from bottlenecking immediately after the expanded crossing.
The bridge now includes shoulders on each side, two sidewalks, and concrete barriers separating pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Improvements to storm drainage, road markings, traffic signage, and the construction of Keystone-type reinforced earth retaining walls near the structure were also part of the scope.
Conavi reported that the initial budget for the work was approximately $780,000, but an agreement between the parties allowed the project to be expanded to include the road extension and additional improvements, bringing the final cost to roughly $1 million. The agency said the upgrades are intended to improve both vehicle flow and pedestrian safety along a stretch of road that handles heavy daily traffic from the commercial and business districts of Santa Ana and Lindora.
The Corrogres bridge project is separate from the long-delayed widening of the broader Lindora radial corridor — the 2.2-kilometer stretch between the Corrogres and Virilla rivers that has been planned for years as a seven-lane expansion. That larger project remains unfunded, with Conavi still searching for an estimated $45 million to carry it out.
