Costa Rica MLS Blog

e Minister of Public Works and Transport has urged private companies to get involved in helping complete the 460-kilometer tourist road, known as the Ruta del Sol.

“I would be delighted for any help we can get from the private sector,” Karla González said this week.

The government is particularly interested in the 14 kilometers (or about nine miles), which links the northern Guanacaste beaches of Playas del Coco with those south of Sugar Beach.

“We have no plans for the northern section of the Ruta del Sol and the survey and design phase is always much easier for the private sector,” Ms González said.

The design phase of major roads is a 12-month process for the government, involving a lengthy bidding process. Appeals can make the process even longer, whereas the private sector has no legal requirement to put the process out to tender.

The 14-kilometer link is a small part of the 288-mile-long Ruta del Sol which will eventually track the Northern Pacific Coast from La Cruz on the border with Nicaraguan south to Santa Teresa, on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, north again to the Tempisque Bridge and inland back to La Cruz.

“We have always said Guanacaste has to be a priority since it is so important what is going on here,” Ms Gonzáez said. “Tourism and tourism development has made this a priority.”

The Minister’s plea came as she announced plans for another key section of the route 27 Abril to Paraiso, a section southeast of Tamarindo.

“The bidding process is done for that stretch of road,” she said. “We expect to start the construction phase of up-grading and sealing this road in two months.”

Ms González said the road to be sealed was particularly wide and would probably take about 18 months to complete.

In all the Ministry has committed about 9.3 billion colones (about $18 million) on three sections of roadway, linking main tourist destinations. The roadway between Belén and Huacas was completed about a month ago. Veintisiete Abril to Río Seco and Paraíso is in train, and the section Puerto Carrillo-Estara-Lajas is moving ahead.

Further, a deal was expected to be signed this week between the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism and the Ministry over the section northwest from 27 Abril to Villareal.

In what is the most visible cooperation is between the Ministry and the private sector, the chamber is just $10,000 short of the $120,000 it needs to commission a survey and plan of the roadway which would then be approved by the Ministry. In return the Ministry will budget for the road works in the first weeks of 2008. Originally they had not intended to start work until 2009.

“We have received a letter from the vice minister pledging to start the construction of the road within the first days of 2008,” said Mauricio Cespedes, the Executive Director of the Chamber of Tourism.

It is understood some 15 businesses contributed to the drafting and surveying work, which was first organized by two Tamarindo businessmen.

“Almost everything is ready to begin the design,” said the Vice-Minister of Public Works, Pedro Castro. “I just have to give them some technical terms that we require for the 12 kilometers.
“Once the design is done, we will immediately add it to the cartel for the construction, and we would like to have it assigned this year.”

Ms González confirmed another section of the Ruta del Sol, between Nosara and Sámara, could be up-graded and sealed sometime in 2008.

“We cannot be more specific that that because the bidding process is going on,” Ms González said. “It should take four months, but it depends upon any appeals processes. That can slow the process.”

The cost is estimated at 161 million colones, or about $310,000.

But the critical section of the Ruta del Sol remains the 14 kilometers to the north, between Sardinal and Playa Potrero. Up-graded and sealed it would radically shorten drive times to Liberia’s Daniel Oduber International Airport, link the province’s golf courses, and open up the remaining coastal strip, which is slated for huge development.

At least three major hotels are known to be moving into the immediate area: a Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Playa Manzanillo, a Ritz Carlon Hotel in the Zapotal Valley, and a Rosewood Hotel, to be built upon a 60-hectare (150-acre) property on Playa Guachipelín.

The developers of at least two of these are known to be in discussions over infrastructure, including who might fund their section of the Ruta del Sol, with the owners of Las Catalinas, the 470 hectares wrapping around Sugar Beach and along the Pacific coast to the north.

However, a source close to the discussions said last week little progress had been made. The three were unable to agree who would pay what.

In another development this week Minister González announced her department was about to complete the installation of a processing asphalt plant in Cañas, in El Chopo, at a cost of about 50 million colones ($96,000).

When operational, the plant will be able to 90 tonnes of hot asphalt per hour, which will provide the raw material for the repair of roads in 11 cantons in Guanacaste, as well as the northern region of Puntarenas and San Carlos.