Road to Limon to Cost $40 million More

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.

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

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."

"... The Conavi has, according to Zhou Jingxiong, CHEC's project manager, until November 15 to approve the plans and the new price. The Chinese official said the additional $40 million is "imperative" for the project. The agreement between Costa Rica and the CHEC was signed in June 2013 and the Conavi forecast that construction would began last September, which did not happen."

Nacion.com reports that "...On top of the $505 million of the agreement with CHEC costs need to be added related to expropriations and relocation of services. According to an estimate published on the website of the National Council of Roads (Conavi), these two items could consume another $20 million. The project has not yet approved tree-cutting permits, a deep archaeological study is needed in Pococí and Guácimo, relocating public services such as telecommunications and electricity, hiring a supervisory company and managing more than 1,000 expropriations."  

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More on this topic

Costa Rica: Road Construction to Limón Delayed

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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.

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