QCOSTARICA — A loan from the Banco Mundial for US$160 million dollars will be used by the Government to repair at least 77 roads affected by the heavy and constant rains of the last two weeks.
According to the Consejo Nacional de Vialidad (Conavi) – National Road Council, the indirect effect of Hurricane Rafael and Tropical Storm Sara caused considerable damage to national and cantonal roads.
Landslides, floods, and major damage to infrastructure, such as washing away of earth and breaking of asphalt, among others, have begun to be attended by the Conavi.
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“In a specific and general way we have not yet been able to have a preliminary number of the damages, but it is a table that we are constantly updating. In the last update we have about 77 incidents on different roads,” declared Cristian Arroyo, executive director of Conavi.
He also pointed out that the damages range “from small problems, such as some landslides, to something larger such as slopes, deformations in highways, some cracks, sewer problems and others.”
“These are palliative works in some places where there have been some cracks, deformations in the asphalt and the weather has allowed it. We have been able to profile and level the road surface a bit to allow traffic,” said the official.
Roads continue to be affected
Experts in road engineering say that, despite the fact that the rains have ceased in intensity in recent days, the soils remain saturated with water, which could generate more landslides and floods, so the roads would still be affected.
Marcial Rivera, head of the Process Unit of the Federated College of Engineers and Architects (CFIA), explained that “our soils work like a cloth, which has spaces inside and is not solid. When we put that cloth in the washing machine, those little holes begin to fill with water, which does not come out immediately, making it heavier.”
He added that the lack of investment in infrastructure and its respective maintenance is what causes the greatest damage to the roads, because “our country has two shortcomings, there are very old roads without all the engineering techniques that we have now,” added to the fact that “not all roads have a preventive maintenance contract, almost everything is that the collapse comes and I remove it.”
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For his part, Fabián Elizondo, coordinator of Research in Transport Infrastructure of the National Laboratory of Materials and Structural Models of the University of Costa Rica (Lanamme), agrees with this criterion, because he points out that bridges, slopes, water management systems such as sewers and drains are those that would present the most damage.
According to the engineer, “if the structure is permanently under saturated conditions, its useful life can be significantly reduced,” which would endanger human life and the state of national roads.
“These elements are generally designed taking into account a critical maximum humidity condition that is exceeded when specific events occur that exceed the design considerations,” he said.
Loan for emergencies
On Thursday, with the unanimous vote of the 41 legislators present at the Legislative Assembly, the US$160 million loan negotiated between the Government and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), intended to address emergencies caused by natural disasters, was approved in the first debate.
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Though the bill was approved on October 30 by the Finance Committee of the Legislative Assembly, it did not advance due to the lack of sufficient support from the legislators.
However, following the rains in of the last few weeks, legislators saw it urgent to approve the bill to move forward to fund the reconstruction and repairs, in particular the in the province of Guanacaste.
“We have been saying for several days that it was urgent to move forward with this loan. It is a line of credit so that the country can access resources to deal with situations caused by natural disasters,” said Jonathan Acuña, legislator for the Frente Amplio.
In addition to the loan, Costa Rica has received international support from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) and the Government of El Salvador with a humanitarian mission as a gesture of solidarity.
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