Daily News  

The General Controller's Department of the Republic ordered that in January the Caldera road should get construct

If there are no further setbacks, the new road San Jose-Caldera should finally start building in January 2008 after 30 years of waiting

Last night, the General Controller's Department endorsed an amendment to the concession contract, which sets the final cost of the work and orders to begin the construction in the next 39 days.

The civil work project –adjudicate to the Spanish consortium, Portuguese and Costa Rican that will have a total value of $ 230 million (¢ 119,830 million), which is $ 72 million more than expected in 2001.

Luis Diego Vargas, Vice Minister of Concessions, explained that six years ago the road of 77 kilometers was valued in $ 158 million, number which is no longer compensate for the rise in construction materials such as steel, asphalt and fuel.

The addendum also extended the period of construction, from 24 months to 30 months. That means that the route should be up and running in July 2010.

Carlos Arguedas, manager of the Administrative Contracting Office of the Controller's, add that now the concession period varies, it extends to 25 years and six months, rather than before it was 25 years in the originally scheduled

However, the Deputy Minister Vargas said that the contract provides that the grant could end earlier of the date if the company ¨Autopistas del Sol¨ achieves revenues of $ 258 million (¢ 134,418 million).

Last night, the Minister of Public Works and Transport, Karla Gonzalez, was satisfied by the endorsement issued by the Controller’s.

According to Gonzalez, although the order to start the works should be, no longer than December 29, it is likely that the machines will begin to work in the first half of January and take advantage of the summer.

Prior, the grantee must submit contracts for the financing of the project with its creditor banks: Madrid’s Cashier Desk and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE).

However, until yesterday, those documents were still in draft.

Gonzalez said that banks were only awaiting the endorsement of this addendum to finalize negotiations with the Sun Highway.