Costa Rica: Road Construction to Limón Delayed

The Chinese company in charge of the project will start construction work in the second half of 2018, and not in September of this year, as originally planned.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

The delay is due to the fact that the Costa Rican State has not yet completed all of the necessary procedures to begin the project. There are up to 1,000 expropriations pending settlement, an archaeological study is still pending and there is still no plan to relocate public services such as water, electricity and internet cables.

In an article on Nacion.com, Zhou Jingxiong, project manager for China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC), a Chinese state-owned construction company, "... said that these problems will prevent them from starting in September, as the contract says, and in the best of cases they could do so in the second half of 2018."

Jingxiong added that "... we will deliver the final designs of the new 107-kilometer route on August 15. However, the little amount of progress made by the State in the tasks that are pending will postpone execution of the project. After the CHEC submits final plans to the National Road Council (Conavi), the administration will have 45 days to review and authorize them."

Another problem is that there is still uncertainty as to how additional work will be financed, such as new overpasses and marginal roads that were not considered in the initial design. "... The Council is not clear where the money will come from to pay for these changes. Kenneth Solano, manager of Conavi's executing unit, told Nacion.com that CHEC offered to lobby for an extension of the loan with Eximbank, but so far nothing has been made concrete."

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More on this topic

Route to Limon: New Delay Expected

March 2020

Due to the health alert facing Costa Rica, the China Harbor Engineering Company decided to lay off 180 employees working on the Route 32 expansion project, which has already fallen behind on previous occasions.

In December 2019, it was reported that the Asian construction company asked the National Road Council (Conavi) for a 400-day extension to deliver the 107-kilometer extension, which connects the Rio Frio intersection with downtown Limon. However, authorities only agreed to delay it by 174 days, so the work would be delivered no later than March 2021.

Route to Limón Would Be Ready in March 2021

December 2019

Due to delays caused by situations beyond the control of China Engineering Company, the Costa Rican authorities agreed to postpone by 174 days the delivery of the work to expand Route 32.

Initially the China Engineering Company (CHEC), asked the National Road Council (Conavi) for an extension of 400 days to deliver the extension of 107 kilometers, which connects the crossing to Rio Frio with the center of Limon, however, the authorities only agreed to delay for 174 days, therefore, the work would be delivered no later than March 2021.

Road to Limon to Cost $40 million More

October 2017

The final designs presented by the Chinese company include the construction of nine bridges and 27 kilometers of marginal roads, raising the total cost of the work from $465 million to $505 million.

Spokespeople for China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC), in charge of the project, explained that in the review of the 32 bridges on the 107 km stretch of road that will be rebuilt there are 9 that are in poor condition and must be demolished. In addition to the nine bridges, the designs presented by CHEC include "... 27 kilometers of marginal roads; in the original contract the construction of 26 kilometers was established."

Alternative to $465 million Road Contract with China

March 2014

Five Costa Rican construction companies have submitted a joint proposal to take over the expansion to four lanes of 107 miles of kilometers to the Caribbean.

The companies, Codocsa, Desarrollos Mega, Pedregal, Productos de Concreto and Traesa submitted a joint proposal for the expansion to four lanes of the Rio Frio to Limón stretch on Route 32.

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