1500 meters is all that’s left to complete the Costanera Sur, the coastal highway that was begun in 1962 and that stretches from Puntarenas to Palmar Norte, a distance of 280 kilometers.  It is Costa Rica’s only legitimate coastal highway.  The most troubling spot has been the stretch from Quepos to Baru.  A stretch of 42 kilometers that has remained unpaved for decades….until now.  I can remember the days of having to actually cross “bridgeless” rivers in order to arrive to Dominical.  Back then that short 42 kilometer (or 26 mile) trip could take you two hours or more.  Well, it is almost completed and will be the final missing link to complete the full breadth of the Costanera.  The only thing left is the bridge over the Rio Perla and a little 1500 meter segment that the government is having problems appropriating sufficient land to complete.  That’s because foreigners have been buying up land in the area in anticipation of the road being completed and thus most are absent landowners that the Costa Rican government is having a hard time bargaining with.  However, officials with MOPT (Costa Rica’s Agency for Public Works) assures that this final segment will be completed this year, around April to be exact, missing the previous deadline of December 2009 by four months.  That’s not bad since we all have been waiting 48 years for the Costanera to be a done deal.  Travel in Costa Rica just keeps getting better thanks to Oscar Arias, who by the way will inaugurate eight new bridges, as well as the Costanera itself, this week, in the closing moments of his administration.  Hopefully the solid progress in Costa Rican infrastructure will continue with the next administration.

Link to Article in La Nacion