Route 1 will be shut at the Río Barranca bridge from 8 p.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Sunday while crews pull three RECOPE fuel pipelines across the roadway, the Public Works Ministry said. The 12-hour total closure hits one of the busiest overnight stretches for traffic heading to Puntarenas, the Gulf of Nicoya, and much of Guanacaste on Route 1. Light vehicles will be sent onto Calle El Tejar. Trucks and buses are told to use Route 27 or Route 23 or wait until the span reopens Sunday morning.
MOPT is replacing the old Barranca crossing with a new 121-meter bridge. Saturday night’s shutdown is a separate, short cut-over so the state refiner can thread the three pipes through the pavement while that work is underway. There is no contraflow and no “one lane open.” If you are on Route 1 at Barranca after 8 p.m., you are turning around or taking the posted alternate.
Who this Affects
Route 1 through Barranca is the spine between the Central Valley and the northern Pacific. Saturday-night traffic is a mix of locals, cargo, and weekend travelers coming back from or still heading toward the coast.
Drivers who normally roll through Barranca after dinner — Puntarenas town, Jacó-adjacent traffic that joined Route 1, or anyone going on toward Cañas, Liberia, and the airport at Daniel Oduber — should leave earlier, stay later, or switch to Route 27 (San José–Caldera) and then Route 23 rather than gambling on the Interamericana after dark.
Heavy vehicles do not get Calle El Tejar and MOPT is sending them to 27 and 23, which will stack if a line of night trucks all make the same choice at once. The ministry asked drivers to build in delay and to respect a 30 km/h limit in the work zone when the road is open.
This is not the only Route 1 cut coming
Two more restrictions start Monday:
- Cambronero modular bridge: preventive maintenance continues from Monday, with regulated one-way or flagged passage. Expect stops, not a full overnight shutdown.
- San Ramón interchange / La Unión tunnel: from Monday, Sept. 7, through December, Route 1 will run on a 24-hour diversion in both directions around the new interchange and tunnel works. Traffic is to use a parallel roadway already opened on site. That one is not a single night. It is the fall commute.
A separate one-night closure on Route 4 at the Río Las Haciendas bridge, between Upala and La Cruz, ran from 7 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Saturday and should already be finished.
If you are moving this weekend
- Going to or from Puntarenas / northern Pacific on Route 1: be through Barranca before 8 p.m. Saturday, or plan to sit until 8 a.m. Sunday.
- Driving a rental car or pickup: Calle El Tejar is the posted light-vehicle escape. Follow MOPT and traffic-police cones; do not improvise a dirt cutoff in the dark.
- Driving a camper, shuttle bus, or anything heavy: Route 27 and Route 23. Budget an extra hour.
- Flying out of Liberia Sunday morning: do not leave the Central Valley Saturday night assuming Route 1 is open at Barranca.
- Starting Monday: treat San Ramón as a standing delay through the holidays, not a one-off.
MOPT’s message that it seemingly wants to send is that if you planned to use Route 1 over the next few days, you might want to think about making another plan. We will post a update if the Barranca window moves or if Sunday-morning backups spill onto the Caldera highway.
