Traffic Tunnel to Descrease Congestion in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Like many other cities worldwide, it has been well-documented that San José’s city streets are overcrowded. During rush hour, the streets are bumper-to-bumper, and the city’s buses and cars vie for precious road real estate. The problem has escalated over the years, causing the government and area organizations to search for solutions.

Just over a month ago, the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) announced that new bus routes would serve to make bus transport more efficient - instead of stopping in the city center to get from one suburb to the next, the new bus lines would now directly connect these areas, thus avoiding the busy city center. Despite the addition of 100 new buses to cover such routes, their presence would help take about 900 inefficient buses off of the city’s streets.

In the latest announcement to improve city transportation, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) has announced plans to develop and build an underground highway, a big change for the country’s only electricity and telecommunications company. Though this is a new kind of project for them, it relies heavily on something they’ve done for years: building tunnels.

The new government deal will appoint ICE in charge of the project, which will construct a subterranean tunnel to help traffic flow between Zapote and Curridabat. The project was accepted by Pedro Pablo Quirós, chairman of ICE, who said that “no one is better than ICE’s tunnel builders for developing this project.”

ICE will be able to start the project as soon as they complete excavations at the Pirrís hydroelectric plant, which are tentatively schedule to end next year. Soon after, work will start on the project that is said to be an integral part of improving city transportation, and a more economic solution than building above-ground alternative routes.

Initial estimates believe that at least 320 expropriations will be necessary, hiking up the project’s price about $7 million and postponing construction for a few years. Actual construction will take between 18 and 24 months, and the tunnel’s total cost hovers around $45 million. Though the price tag looks hefty, the underground tunnel’s value to the city will be almost priceless, facilitating traffic flow between busy city locations on the Zapote-Curridabat route.

Though the tunnel’s exact route is not yet defined, Quirós has confirmed several preliminary studies that the project is viable. Taking into account the geology of the area, the tunnel will likely run from where the Florencio del Castillo route begins — in Hacienda Vieja, near the entrance to Tirrases (Curridabat) — to the  Garantís Sociales roundabout, a prominent Zapote landmark. It will have four lanes — two each way — and will be about 3 kilometers long, with the hope of significantly reducing travel time.

New bus schedules and subterranean tunnels are good news for the city’s visitors and residents, who will soon benefit from emptier streets, more efficient travel, and urban infrastructure that seems determined to head confidently into the 21st century.

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Filed under: Costa Rica News on May 22nd, 2008