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COSTA RICA |
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The Platina
Problem Over the Virilla Bridge Has
Competition
Everyone in Costa Rica knows about the
infamous "platina" - the metal strip or
problems with - used to separate the spans
of the Virilla bridge over the autopista
General Cañas (San José - Alajuela highway)
that made headlines several months ago and
continues today to be a concern for drivers
crossing the bridge.
But, move over General Cañas, the platina
has a new contender, the autopista Florencio
Castillo (San José - Cartago highway) that
has a traffic volume of some 20.000 vehicles
daily.
Last night a piece of the platina - between
40 and 50 centimeters - across the bridge in
front of Terramall came loose on the
westbound lanes.
The damage was confirmed by the Policía de
Tránsito at 7pm.
And like the Cañas platina, work crews will
try to repaid the damage while traffic
trough the area will be "regulado"
(regulated). Drivers will have the option of
crawling through the autopista at the bridge
or use the old road to Tres Rios.
Unlike the Virilla bridge that has been
standing for decades, the Terrmall bridge
was built in 2003 and is one of the newest
and more modern bridges in the country.
The General Cañas with an average vehicle
traffic of 70.000 was closed on three
separate occasions, on two of the occasions
the highway was completely closed for more
than 48 hours, last August as work crews
tried to repair the platina.
However, on all three occasions the repair
work lasted only hours after the highway was
re-opened to traffic and today continues
with a 4 inch gap across the westbound span,
causing traffic backup as drivers slow down
to cross.
The Florencio Castillo, like the General
Cañas, are major arteries and at peak times
the only viable routes, as secondary routes
are unable to meet the demands of traffic
volume.
The Consejo Nacional de Vialidad (Conavi) is
working on solving the Virilla problem and
says the bridge repair will have to wait
until next year, as part of the country's
strategy to repair more than a 1.000 bridges
around the country, 10 of which are in
"critical" condition.
However, that may suffer another major
setback with the tendering of resignation by
the MOPT minister, Karla González, following
the tragedy of last Thursday when the bridge
over the Tárcoles river collapsed, killing
five and injuring dozens when a public
transport bus plunged into the river after
the suspension bridge gave way.
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