Super gasoline will go down ¢28 per liter; Regular, ¢26; and diesel will go up ¢17, according to ARESEP.

LPG gas for cooking will cost ¢22 less per litro, and A-1 Jet Fuel will rise ¢48. The resolution will be sent for publication on Friday and should take effect on or before January 5th.

The decision partially eliminates a subsidy for diesel and jet fuel and is trying to balance the gas prices.  The original proposal would have dropped super ¢59 per liter, and regular ¢46, while diesel would have  risen ¢33.

Fernando Herrero, the chief regulator, explained that the partial elimination was better, so that the price of diesel would not rise too abruptly, which could lean to a chain reaction in prices of “public transport and other goods and services that depend on transportation.” The regulators would like to implement the next adjustment within 3 months.

By Blake Schmidt
Tico Times Staff

The Public Works and Transport Ministry (MOPT) has fined seven companies more than $225,000 for not meeting contract requirements during their first five months of work on various roads.

The seven businesses, hired to maintain some of the nation’s fraying roadway infrastructure, were fined for using asphalt mixes not up to quality standards, falling behind on projects and having work teams short of personnel, according to Pedro Castro, Vice-Minister of Public Works and Transport.

“A lot of these roads need to be reconstructed, but there’re no funds for it,” Castro said. Instead, MOPT contracted 22 businesses this year to patch potholes, clean gutters and repair bridges on the nation’s 3,700 kilometers of paved roads.

The seven businesses fined include Meco, Santa Fe, Conansa, Sánchez Carvajal, M&S, Convicar and Convisur.

Meco vice-president José Alfredo Sánchez told the daily La Nación the fines would require businesses to be punctual.

Contracting out this maintenance work, which began in July and is already running into bumps, is one small step in MOPT’s larger plans to overhaul the nation’s roadways by contracting out highway construction and improvements.

The State of the Nation report released recently concluded that six of each 10 kilometers of road in Costa Rica are in bad or very bad conditions. The network of national roadways has lost more than 50% of its value because of a lack of proper maintenance (TT, Nov. 17).

Municipal roadways are worse, with only 10% in good condition, and the rest in bad, very bad or fair condition, according to the report.

To fix all the country’s roads would cost 20% of the central government’s $5.6 billion budget, according to the report. Castro said MOPT has some $140 million in its budget from the gasoline tax, and another $160 million from the Central American Economic Integration Bank (BCIE) to maintain and improve roads next year.

He said that is barely enough, which is why the ministry is looking to concession out more and more highway projects to private companies.

The National Roadway Council (CONAVI), a branch of MOPT, manages the national highway system. Local governments are in charge of maintaining municipal roads, though MOPT also supports municipalities with roadway maintenance teams.

MOPT’s plans to restructure the nearly 30 teams it has around the country that help municipalities maintain local roads are stirring controversy.

Walter Soto, a MOPT worker and union member in Naranjo, west of San José, said more than two dozen workers from the Naranjo plant began strikes this week to protest changes MOPT is making to the public institution.

“The government wants to privatize and weaken the institution,” he said, adding that workers at other plants could go on strike in the near future.

Castro said MOPT’s plans to “restructure” its maintenance teams won’t necessarily mean layoffs, though it could mean workers will be moved around while as many as seven offices are closed down.

MOPT has no immediate plans to privatize roadway maintenance at the local level, according to Castro.

On a national level, MOPT plans to concession out the construction of four large highways next year, as well as three rotunda projects and six projects to build or expand roads that connect main highways.

Spanish company Autopistas del Valle is preparing to begin a $150 million expansion of the 60-kilometer highway between San José and San Ramón, on the western edge of the Central Valley. Castro said the company would likely begin construction by February.

Construction of the 70-kilometer, $100 million highway between San José and the Pacific port of Caldera, by the Spanish company Autopista del Sol, is also slated to begin by February.

But the 25-kilometer, $100 million project to widen the highway between the eastern Central Valley city of Cartago and San José, as well as tentative plans to expand and improve the highway from San José to the Caribbean port of Limón, have yet to find concessionaires. Castro said those projects aren’t likely to break ground until 2008 or later.

He said MOPT hopes to finish by 2008 six projects totaling $40 million to build roads that connect major highways.

Also this week, MOPT broke ground on a 10-month, $3.5 million project to build an underground passage beneath a rotunda leading to the southern San José neighborhood of San Sebastián, which will be done by the Costa Rican company Sánchez Carvajal. Castro said there are two more rotunda projects in Hatillo and Alajuelita scheduled to start next year.

MOPT also has plans to concession out a $150 million reconstruction project of the Inter-American Highway in the northwest province of Guanacaste so construction can begin by the end of next year. He said the section between Barranca and Limonal will be expanded to four lanes, while the section between Limonal and Peñas Blancas, on the border with Nicaragua, will be repaved.

By Blake Schmidt, Tico Times Staff

Updated at 7:15 p.m. Dec. 12 — As night fell upon downtown San José, a crowd of protesters gathered outside the Legislative Assembly where legislators debated the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).

International Affairs Commission legislators planned to discuss the trade pact until midnight, when they were expected to vote on whether to send it to the assembly’s floor. Protesters planned to stake out until then, too.

In October, the assembly set the Dec. 12 deadline for the commission to vote on sending CAFTA to the assembly’s floor. The controversial move prompted minority party leaders to blow the whistle and promise to appeal the move before the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV).

This week is crucial for the trade pact in Costa Rica, the only country that has not ratified it.

Tonight’s deadline remained firm despite the fact that hundreds of motions - most presented by minority parties - have been presented before the International Affairs Commission.

“We shouldn’t vote on it until the whole legislative process has taken place, once each party has had time to have its word,” Citizen Action Party (PAC) president Elizabeth Fonseca told The Tico Times.

“None of that has happened,” she said.

While legislators discussed CAFTA tonight, beefed up security forces outside the assembly guarded its entrance from a growing crowd of protesters.

The Department of Civil Aviation will invest $8 million in designing an integral development plan for Costa Rica’s international airports. The master plans and indication of priority projects will be completed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

According to Bernal Mesén, director of Civil Aviation, the priorities are master plans for the Liberia Airport and the Southern Zone Airport near Palmar Norte. The southern airport must have the capacity to receive large airliners from Asia and Europe and will probably be located in the Sierpe Valley, next to the Térraba River.

The Liberia plan should be ready in April or May of 2007 and is to include plans for embarkation bridges, passenger areas, and areas for Customs and Immigration officials.

The ICAO will deliver the plans for the southern zone airport 5 months later, then will suggest improvements needed at the feeder airports of Sámara and Tamarindo, in Guanacaste; Palmar (Osa) and La Managua ( Quepos), in Puntarenas Province.

Deposits in checking, savings and time deposits rose more in colones than in dollars during September and October.

However, dollar deposits still represent more than 50% of the total.  Low inflation has stimulated deposits in colones, according to economista Alberto Franco. Inflation currently is at 10%, the lowest rate since 2003.

The lower devaluation rate of the colon against the dollar is also making investment in colones more attractive.  The dollar has lost ground against the colon since October.

Only 1% of the total deposits were in Euros.
www.nacion….

A group of US investors who are buying the Las Arcadas shopping center have run into opposition for their plans to build a nine-story “smart” hotel on this land.  The land is adjacent to the Hotel Gran Costa Rica, Plaza de la Cultura and National Theater.

The Ministry of Culture received a letter of protest from Érick Gutiérrez Rojas, general manager of the Gran Hotel Costa Rica . Gutiérrez maintains that building a nine story building would “severely” the collection of buildings that has been declared a national treasure: the National Theater, the Hotel Gran Costa Rica and Las Arcadas.
Based on this criteria, Sandra Quirós, director of Patrimony for the Ministry of Culture, sent a letter to Rodolfo Sancho, director de Civic Engineering at the San José city hall. In the letter she asked the city to consult with the Ministry of Culture before granting any construction permits on the land in question.

Juan Carlos Obando, General Manager of the Corporación Grupo San José, which represents the investment group, stated that the hotel project would not disrupt the harmony of the national treasures. According to Obando the architects working on the project will respect the historical nature of the square that is so dear to the josefinos.

“It will be in harmony with the other buildings.  If 9 floors is too disruptive, we won’t build them. ”, said Obando. Also, he promised that if they determine the project for a hotel is not viable, then the group will build something else.

The government has cut red tape with the inauguration of a new web site www.tramitesconstruccion.go.cr
20 permits or steps are unified online with the web site that was launched yesterday. The portal has information that will allow builders to skip a visit to 20 institutions to file forms or get data over their proposed projects.