InterAmerican Highway Closed
 

The InterAmerican Highway (Rt 1) is closed today north of Puntarenas. So anyone traveling north of Puntarenas will have to take a detour. You can turn at San Ramon and go through La Fortuna and Tilaran and then to Canas and pick up the Highway again there. Or you can turn at San Ramon and head for Highway 4 and take that to Upala and back south on Route 6 to the InterAmerican Highway. The intersection of Route 6 and the Highway will be about 6 km north of Canas.

There is a huge gap in the highway at the bridge over the Rio Seco and a tractor trailer fell in last night. They estimate the road will be closed for three days. For more information: www.transito.go.cr or check the online edition of the newspaper La Nacion at www.nacion.com

Thanks for the info. We were just over that bridge last week.

I am so unfamiliar with all of these roads since I have never been. We are arriving on Monday in San Juan then to arenal and then from arenal to tamarindo,- will we be effected?
thanks

No, you will not be effected. The road repair is only expected to take 3 days, and it started today. So even if it takes a little longer, you should be fine. Might have to take a different route to Arenal if the repairs go on past 4 days, but should not be a problem at all by the time you leave for Tamarindo. Enjoy your trip!

Thanks!

You will not be affected even if the repairs take longer.

The most popular route to the Arenal area is the route that is now one of the detours and does not go over this bridge at all. Once you are in Arenal, your trip to Tamarindo will be north of this bridge, completely bypassing the whole thing. The only problem would be that getting to Arenal is a lot slower and there have been some problems on the alternate route so traffic is pretty heavy.

Likewise, getting back to the airport will take longer for the next few days so people should plan accordingly.

Update: From watching the news this morning -- road still closed. The bridge itself is intact, it was an area of the highway leading to the bridge that was washed away. There is something like a 20 foot gap. There are tons of heavy equipment on site and they are saying they will work 24 hours a day to get it fixed. There is a pedestrian walkway so some people are taking the bus, walking over the walkway to the other side and catching another bus there.

Update: according to the news reports and the government website, the InterAmerican Highway is now open. It opened at about 7 pm last night.