President Solis wants ICE to help improve road infrastructure

(Casa Presidencial / Archive)

June 1^st, 2015 (InsideCostaRica.com) President Luis Guillermo Solis wants to see the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) assist in public infrastructure projects to help improve the country’s crumbling roadways, the president said on Friday while attending the commissioning of the Cachi hydroelectric plant expansion in Jiménez de Cartago.

“It would be an unjustified waste not using the accumulated experience of ICE in conducting public works,” the president said.

The president called for legislative support should legal reforms be necessary to allow ICE to develop and improve roads, bridges, and tunnels, as such work falls outside ICE’s government mandate.

ICE chief Carlos Obregon said the institute would be willing to collaborate on such projects, adding that the institute “isn’t afraid of work” and has plenty of valuable experience.

“A company like ICE, which is the largest designer and builder in Central America, has extensive experience in preliminary studies, slope stabilization, large-scale construction, etc., which can be applied to any type of works,” Obregon said.

President Solis had announced last month that his government was making progress in its efforts to shutdown the National Roads Authority (CONAVI) and replace it with a large, new institute called the National Infrastructure Institute (INI).