Highway Between Liberia and Peñas Blancas To
Be Expanded
(InfoWebPress) — In the past edition of The
Guanacaste Journal, we informed about the
project to widen the section of the Pan
American Highway North between Liberia and
Cañas to four lanes.
Now, the government has announced plans to
expand other sections of the highway between
Barranca and Arizona de Abangares
(Puntarenas province), Arizona-Cañas, and
Liberia-Peñas Blancas (border with
Nicaragua).
The Pan American Highway North expansion
works, which include the four projects
mentioned above, will be financed through a
loan provided by the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB) for $850 million. The
highway will go from the current two lanes
to four. The works also include the
construction of bike paths, pedestrian
bridges and bus bays.
Involved in the project are the Ministry of
Transportation and Public Infrastructure (MOPT),
the ministries of the Treasury and Planning,
the Costa Rican Central Bank, and Guanacaste
municipalities.
Construction of the Liberia-Cañas section
will begin next year, entailing
reconstruction and widening of 54 kilometers
between the two Guanacaste cities. This
project was chosen first because no land
expropriation will be needed to accommodate
the additional lanes. Some 3,000-4,000
vehicles circulate daily on this road.
MOPT would publish bidding specifications
for this project this month, so t hat
construction can begin in the second
semester of 2009. It hasn’t been determined
yet whether the road will be paved using
asphalt or concrete.
However, the highway initiative is already
drawing complaints from environmental
groups, which believe such expansion could
impact valuable natural resources in the
area. Freddy Pacheco, an environmentalist
and National University (UNA) professor,
pointed out that there are ongoing plans by
the government to build a reservoir at La
Cueva — which would require redesign of the
highway.
Pacheco said that last July 25, in Nicoya,
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and the
ministers of the Environment, Presidency and
Agriculture, signed an executive decree that
would give the La Cueva Reservoir the title
of “Project of Public Interest and National
Benefit.”
The reservoir project “would practically
derail plans tied to the loan through which
the highway between Liberia and Peñas
Blancas on the northern border would be
financed,” Pacheco said.
“We are, thus, before one of the many
negative consequences stemming from the La
Cueva project, which also entails the
destruction by flooding of 380 wooded
hectares of the Horizones Section of the
Santa Rosa National Park, dozens of houses
and 700 hectares of cattle ranches,” Pacheco
added.
The environmentalist claimed that this
reservoir “wouldn’t even have a positive
impact on satisfying drinking water needs
for the province’s tourism development.”
Despite these concerns, the project is
slated to begin next year once a contractor
is chosen.
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