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Monday 29 December
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
No Money To Repair
Avenida Segunda, Admits
Transport Minister
Although repairing the
road surface of Avenida
Segunda was a priority
once the La Uruca radial
was completed, the
Ministra de Obras
Publicas y Tranportes (MOPT),
Karla González, admits
there is no money to
carry out the work.
Avenida Segunda is one
of the more important
roads in downtown San
Jose and is full of
potholes, cracks, uneven
surfaces and erosion of
the different materials
used to patch up the
avenida.
González added that the
section of road between
La República and the
Llorente de Tibás will
suffer the same fate of
Avenida Segunda, all for
the lack of funds to
carry out the work.
"Actually there is not
enough money in the
budget to remove the
road surface and replace
it. It's impossible with
the 2008 funds", said
the minister.
The minister denied that
she has stopped any
repairs to the road as
it needs to be
reconstructed and thus
would not warrant
wasting funds for
repairs that will not
serve.
González added that the
work will be carried out
once the government gets
the us$850 million
dollar loan from the
Banco Interamericano de
Desarrollo (BID).
However, the actual
disbursement of the
funds will be up to the
Legislative Assembly if
and when they approve
the loan.
Guillermo Zúñiga, the
ministro de Hacienda
(Finance minister), said
last week that he will
be explaining to the
legislative deputies the
importance of the loan
once the legislative
sessions resume in
January.
The BID has offered the
country the loan to
improve its
infrastructure like
bridges, roads and
bicycle paths, of which
the government must add
us$200 million dollars
to the pot, bringing the
total amount of money
available for all the
projects to us$1.050
billion dollars. |
