Surveyors are working along route 160 to draw up the property registration plans in order to progress with the long-awaited project to pave Route 160 from Samara to Nosara, marking important points where the road needs to be widened or where curves need to be straightened. Once the surveying is completed, cost estimates will be calculated and property owners will be contacted to discuss assessments.
However, it seems that people are removing the stakes and tie-rod pins placed by the surveyors. To address this problem, Vice Mayor Adriana Rodriguez from the Municipality of Nicoya and Miguel Molina Cruz from The National Roadway Council (CONAVI- Consejo Nacional de Vialidad) held a meeting on Friday, September 6 in Nosara with representatives of the development associations of Samara, Garza and Nosara. No one attended from the association of Esperanza.
It is suspected that perhaps property owners are removing the stakes and pins because they are suspicious of the work being done.“Don’t be afraid. This is a project for everyone’s good,” was the message voiced by Byron Rosales Morales, municipal engineer, during the meeting. He said that rather than removing the stakes, neighbors should maintain them until the new road is constructed. Removing the stakes now will make it more difficult to advance with the project since they will have to be redone later, adding cost and time.
Molina assured that the design for the highway is ready, incorporating previous hydraulic studies of riverbeds since the design includes the construction of several bridges, beginning in Samara, where the bridge over the Lagarto River between downtown Samara and Cangrejal will be replaced with a new bridge to the left of where the existing bridge is.
The route then continues through Cantarana, crossing the Buena Vista River, where a new bridge will be constructed, communicating Esterones with Samara so that people living on the other side of the river would no longer have to drive all the way around through Barco Quebrado up toward the gas station to get to Samara. The route continues through Esterones to Barco Quebrado toward Nosara, a total of 20 kilometers.
Since the route is not considered a primary highway, Molina, who works with the direction of design for CONAVI, explained that it is being designed with a width of 20 meters but that not every part of the road has to be that width. The most critical areas are the curves, but areas with many curves such as the segment on the other side of the Buena Vista River en route to Esterones will be straightened to reduce the curves.
The group hired to do this phase of the work is Consultopo S.A., based in San Isidro de Heredia. They began work on May 20 and have until November 5 to turn the finished property registration plans into CONAVI. At this point, they have completed more than 100 of the 305 plans total required for the project. Once the plans are turned in, Molina said they will be sent to the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) for evaluation. He noted that the administrative process, including budgeting, property registration and bidding for the work contract, could take a year or more before the actual construction begins.
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