Two Thirds of National Roads Inadequate, Report Concludes
According to study by the Laboratorio Nacional de Materiales y Medidas Estructurales (Lanamme), the country lost some 114 kilometres of road due to poor maintenance and deterioration.

German Valverde, an engineer at Lanamme, said that that is the difference between the first study of the country's road network done in 2004 and today. The 114 kilometres, according to Valverde, are not "drivable", roads that are full of potholes and broken asphalt that makes vehicular use impossible.

The worst part if the 44 kilometres of the Interamericana Sur, the road that leads to Peurto Jiménez de Golfito. Notwithstanding, there are many other similar routes, according to the Lanamme report.

Valverde said that the Peurto Jiménez is being slowly repaired, but what it really needs is to be rebuilt.

Lanamme says that the government has invested some us$144 million dollars to repair the main national routes around the country, howveer, "all that has been done has been in vain because the road network has not improved, which was the priority. The road network in reality has gotten worse", said Valverde.

The Lanamme officials added that the majority of the damage is due to faulty construction or just plain lack of investment in maintenance or both. The official said that some major roads need a complete overhaul while they only get a superficial facelift, which is destroyed during the rainy season.

The Lanamme report says that two thirds of the country's national roads are in less than adequate condition and the province with the worst road conditions is Guanacaste, where 77% or 556 kilometres of national roads have a poor asphalt base abd 391 kilometres are just deterioated.

Costa Rica has some 4.500 kilometres of paved national roads which are under the care of the Consejo Nacional de Vialidad (Conavi). The rest of the local roads totalling 28.500 kilometres are the responsibility of local communities and municipalities and were not taken into the Lanamme study.

The Lanamme report criticized the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT) which does not know the exact number of vehicles circulating on the national roads and that makes it difficult to determine the grade of the asphalt to be used in the construction and repair. Lanamme added that the MOPT doesn't even know the thickness of most the national roads either.

Valverde estimates that 2% of the Gross National Product (GNP) needs to be invested in the road infrastructure or in real numbers equalling to ¢200 billion colones or us$388 million dollars.

Pedro Castro, vice-minister of the MOPT says that for 2007 the government is making available only s$140 million dollars, giving priority to rebuilding the Interamerican Norte (Guanacaste - San José) and the Braulio Carillo, the major route between Limón and San José.

Castro admitted that the national road network is a mess and that soon there will be improvement as new construction and maintenance work begins.