QCOSTARICA — In 1960 began the discussion on the idea of a ring road, known as a circunvalación, around San Jose.
When the idea was born, the country had an official population of 1.2 million and the exchange rate was ¢6 colones to one US dollar.
“It will be a fast transit route, outside the central area of the city of San José and inside the towns of Tibás, Moravia, Guadalupe, San Pedro, Curridabat, Desamparados, Alajuelita, Escazú and Pavas.
– Advertisement –
“And its purpose is to adequately distribute the movement of vehicles in the Metropolitan Area,” says Article 1, section a) declaring the to built road as a public interest.
Due to the lack of resources, including obtaining expropriations, the work on the important road had not yet started. Progress was made in obtaining rights of way, some of which were ceded by the Dent family and others had to be purchased.
Eduardo Jenkins who was in charge of designing the ring road, recalled Rodolfo Méndez Mata, who was the then Minister of Public Works and Transport (MOPT), from 1978 to 1982, moved the project along with the decision to build, at least the section between Hatillo and the San Sebastián intersection with MOPT machinery.
Over the next decade or so, the construction of the circunvalación advanced from San Pedro to Pavas and then stalled again with the 1980s economic crisis in Costa Rica.
“All administrations had enormous limitations in allocating resources to the country’s infrastructure,” Méndez said.
Méndez returned to head the MOPT in the 1998 – 2002 government of Miguel Angel Rodriguez, under the banner of the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC), to complete the project. However, the project didn’t advance enough for its completion.
– Advertisement –
Méndez once again returned to the portfolio in the 2018-2022 government of Carlos Alvarado, of the Partido Accion Cuidadana (PAC), during which period the circunvalación project advanced, however, the northern section (between Tibás and Calle Blancos) was left unfinished.
To get the job done this time, four phases were designed that go from La Uruca to the junction with Route 32.
“It had to be divided into 4 sections in order to be able to start section by section,” said Méndez.
“The task of obtaining the rights of way was enormous because among the expropriations that had to be obtained were the slums of the Triángulo de la Solidaridad and it constituted a gigantic problem,” Méndez said.
– Advertisement –
“There I have to recognize that this would not have been achieved if Mrs. Claudia (Dobles, First Lady 2018-2022) had not intervened, who assumed the coordination of all the government institutions to be able to clear the right of way and be able to have access to the lands occupied by that slum,” he added.
Moving forward, with all the stops out of the way, the inauguration of the Northern section of the circunvalación was scheduled for November 2022.
However, it was not until June 2023, that the four Functional Units were inaugurated by Luis Amador, the then MOPT minister, along with President Rodrigo Chaves.
Important to note that the “functional units” were not the four sections detailed by the previous government. They were:
- Functional Unit I: This work separates traffic from the Uruca Radial and the circunvalación, allowing both to flow directly. It is 600 meters of a four-lane overpass.
- Functional Unit II: From the bridge over the Rivera ravine in León XIII to Colima de Tibás.
- Functional Unit III: It begins in Colima up to the Triángulo de la Solidaridad.
- Functional Unit IV: In this section, people will be able to move towards route 32 or towards San José.
Amador later revealed a Functional Unit V (5), from Tibás to Calle Blancos, that would truly convert the road into a real ring road. The original completion date for the last section was for early 2023, less than a year into the Chaves administration.
However, that reality did not occur until last Friday, October 4, when, 46 years after the start of the work, the road is now complete. Curiously, the works began in October 1978, the same month in which the last section was inaugurated.
In 2022, before leaving office, Méndez said that it was only fair for the Alvarado government to cut the ribbon for the inauguration.
Now, he points out that it does not matter who inaugurates the works, because the satisfaction of the work done is enormous.
“It is an enormous satisfaction that the work is completed, it does not matter who completes it or celebrates it, that is not the important thing, the important thing is putting the works into service, I am fortunate to have had many years in public service, part of which I dedicated to the Ministry of Public Works and therefore, I am used to the fact that one has to finish works of an administration and that others finish works in which one was,” Méndez said.
However, the Partido Accion Ciudadana has a different perspective. On Thursday afternoon, the day before the inauguration, they released a video acknowledging the contributions of the two previous administrations (Luis Guillermo Solis – 2014-2018 and Carlos Alvarado – 2018-2022) in completing the project.
They point out that the current administration was involved only in the 1.5 km viaduct between Route 32 and Guadalupe and that the intersection of Calle Blancos and marginal roads in the area is not yet finished, the PAC video points out.
Mauricio Batalla, the current MOPT acknowledged that the minor and marginal works are missing, “that is, at some points there are no accesses to enter or leave the circunvalación”.
Editor’s note: Currently, the vehicular restrictions of San Jose DO NOT include the northern section of the circulvación. The traffic law has yet to be amended to include the section between La Uruca and Calle Blancos.
– Advertisement –
Source link
Rico
