The 77km highway linking San José with Caldera will be inaugurated on January 27th.
Built by company Autopistas del Sol, the highway will reduce travel time between the cities to 45 minutes.
"The company started the $230-million project on January 2008, and will recover its investment with tolls along the route, for the next 25 years. Controversy has surrounded the fees charged by the company", reported Nacion.com.
This donation will boost the Pacific Corridor project, a highway system connecting Mexico with Panama.
The initiative seeks to improve infrastructure and road safety, and to make trade easier by improving customs procedures and controls.
$1.1 million are earmarked to make it easier to cross the national borders, contributing to make vehicle and goods transit more efficient, fostering regional trade.
Costa Rica's deficit in infrastructure was cataloged as 'very severe' by IDB experts.
Marcos Camacho, transportation expert at the Inter-American Development Bank, explained that the country needs $10 billion to improve vial infrastructure, "but not to reach a very high level. With this amount it won't come close to European cities, even less to North American ones, it will only come a little bit closer to some South American countries who have recently improved in the subject".
The $500 million project will be developed by concessionaire "Autopistas del Valle".
The project was initially delayed due to lack of funding, but this has been solved with loans from international banks, explained Guillermo Matamoros, Concessions vice minister at the Ministry of Public Works (MOPT).
"This highway was initially awarded to Mexican company Marhnos, but they lacked the necessary funding.
ICE assured investing in the influence area of hydro power project 'Reventazón'.
The Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) will spend in building roads, centers for medical attention and educational programs.
"'Reventazón' power plant, which will use energy of the water from the river of the same name, will be located close to Turrialba", reports Nacion.com. "It will have capacity for 118.5 million cubic meters".
State owned banks will now be able to loan up to 20% of their equity to state entities.
With the approval of the law project, the available loan portfolio at state-owned banks will be 8.6 times larger.
"The modification increases from 6% to 20% the capital and reserves limit that state banks can loan to public institutions. ICE, AyA (Sewer and Aqueducts Institute) and CCSS (Costa Rica Social Insurance) will remain outside of this limits", reported Elfinancierocr.com.
Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli proposed a new alternative for a highway linking the Americas, through Kuna Yala.
At the Tuxtla Summit, hosted by Costa Rica, the proposal of a highway linking Colombia with Panama was discussed again. This road would travel through the so called "Darién Gap".
"This proposal has been rejected by environmentalist groups, arguing that a road through Darién will affect the ecosystem.
The plan envisages for all goods crossing Central America to go through a strong, fast and secure road infrastructure.
Regional transport ministers gathered in Managua also agreed to seek funds for viable maintenance of the regional corridor.
Elnuevodiario.com.ni printed the statements of the Nicaraguan Minister of Transportation, Fernando Martinez: "'We are talking about a length of at least 2 thousand kilometers.' Another important agreement signed by his counterparts in the area was the adoption of a regional fund for the maintenance of regional corridors."
Public works constructions in Costa Rica for January 2009 recorded an increase of 21% over the same month in 2008.
This increase in public construction softened the 8% drop that was experienced by private construction during the same period.
According to data from the Comptroller of Costa Rica published in nacion.com, more can be done in public works since there is about a $2.688 billion (1.5 trillion colones) surplus from 2008 that can be used in 2009. It also indicated that there are $3.667 million in external funding for construction.
The Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) will publish in December the tender for the widening of a section of the Northern Inter-American Highway to four lanes.
This was the promise by minister Karla Gonzalez, who presented the design for the highway that will connected Cañas to Liberia yesterday.
"The tender will be published in December to starting receiving offers in January (...) The expectation is to start the works in the second half of 2009," she said.
The "Grand Route of the Americas" project being developed by the government of Colombia should be operational in 2012.
"This will be more of a tourism project than a highway project because we will be connected to Panama which is just six hours away, thereby increasing the number of visitors to the country," the Minister of Transportation of Colombia, Andres Uriel Gallego, pointed out at a forum of business people and tourism authorities held at the northern port city of Cartagena on the Caribbean coast.