Costa Rica facing multiple infrastructure woes

Costa Rica has a 10-year road infrastructure backlog, needs two new airports, whose construction will take three or four years, and must recover its rail network, according to public works and transport minister Luis Amador.

He told El Mundo newspaper that the Limón airport expansion, a priority of his ministry, will take much longer than anticipated. In a recent report, the ministry mentioned funding problems and the focus on the Liberia airport as causes for the delay.

On ports, Amador said, “we only have one port in the Pacific, we should have two. We also have a franchised port in the Atlantic and an underused port. The Japdeva port is 20% underused.”

Meanwhile, the rail network was “abandoned due to a bad decision, [but] freight generates revenue. We had an impressive rail network, and we left it. Now there are no more rails, only rights-of-way. This can be recovered, but it will take a long time,” Amador said.