The New Highway

New Highway
San José-Caldera Highway Hits the Open Road.

After years of delay the new highway from San Jose to the beach was finally started on January 9, 2008. This is a huge development since it will cut driving time to the beach in half. As everyone knows, access leads to growth and increase in property values. This is sure to raise the property values in the Central Pacific and more specifically at Las Olas Beach Community since it's in the heart of the Central Pacific known as the gold coast. Here is the article that appeared in the paper.

Weekly Edition Newspaper:
January 11 - January 17, 2008 | San José Costa Rica

What for 30 years has been a punch line to jokes about Costa Rican government inefficiency finally got moving yesterday, as President Oscar Arias and other government officials inaugurated the construction of the San José-Caldera highway.

When completed, the 77-km stretch of road will cut driving time by almost a third from the capital to the Pacific coast down to less than an hour.

Ministry of Public Works and Transport head Karla González said concessionaire Autopistas del Sol - a consortium made up of a Spanish, a Portuguese and a Costa Rican company - has 30 months to complete the highway.

Minister of Public Works and Transport Karla Gonzalez said the concessionaire Auto-pista del Sol-a consortium made up of Spanish, a Portuguese and a Costa Rican company-has 30 months to complete the highway.

The cost of the project is estimated at $230 million, three quarters of which will be financed by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration and the Caja Madrid, with the consortium putting up the remainder of the money out of its own pocket.

Autopistas del Sol will pay back the loan by operating and maintaining the highway through a 25 year concession that allows it to collect a toll of $2.70 from vehicles traveling the length of the highway (partial trips will be prorated)

Since its conception in 1978, the San Jose-Caldera highway has been plagued by setbacks and delays. Over the years numerous attempts have been made to get the project moving, with little to show for it.

At the turn of the century, it appeared the highway would finally become a reality as the government completed construction on five bridges for the highway, but for seven years the bridges have been to nowhere, unused except by locals traversing the dirt track where the highway is planned.

The job is in three parts. The first enhances the stretch of road from La Sabana to Ciudad Colón, now called the Autopista Próspero Fernández. Much of this is now a four-lane divided highway, but west of Santa Ana the road becomes two lane. This work, according to the ministry, will take about a year.

The big job is the Ciudad Colón-Orotina highway, some 39 kms. or about 24 miles. The estimated time of construction is two years, said the ministry.

The third part of the project is the enhancement of a 24-km. stretch from the Orotina traffic interchange to the Puerto de Caldera. This road now exists, and the upgrades are expected to take about six months, said the ministry.

Since access leads to growth, Real estate developers and property owners expect the new road will give an economic boost to the central Pacific in the same way that the Puente La Amistad over the Río Tempisque did for the Nicoya Peninsula. At this point Jaco Beach and the communities south are currently experiencing a real estate boom because it's the closet blue flagged beach from San Jose. When the new road is completed in 2 years, travel time will be cut in half, this will only increase demand for central pacific property that is close to the beach and close to San Jose.