National Route 1 (Costa Rica)
National Primary Route 1, formally known as Carretera Interamericana Norte, is the northern segment of the Pan-American Highway that traverses Costa Rica.
Description
The road begins in the casco central districts of San José canton, just where Route 2 ends, at the east side of the La Sabana Metropolitan Park. Two segments of the route have the official names of Autopista General Cañas, between San José and Alajuela, and Autopista Bernardo Soto, between Alajuela and San Ramón.In San José province the route covers San José canton.
In Alajuela province the route covers Alajuela canton, San Ramón canton, Grecia canton, Naranjo canton, Palmares canton.
In Heredia province the route covers Heredia canton, Belén canton.
In Guanacaste province the route covers Liberia canton, Bagaces canton, Cañas canton, Abangares canton, La Cruz canton.
In Puntarenas province the route covers Puntarenas canton, Esparza canton, Montes de Oro canton.
Route and access
Lane availability per direction is very irregular, with plans to widen to up to four lanes between San José and Alajuela, two lanes between Alajuela and San Ramón, then one lane until Barranca, where two lanes until Liberia are in construction. The road will retain one lane until the Peñas Blancas frontier with Nicaragua.Toll booths
There are toll booths in Río Segundo, Alajuela and El Rosario, Naranjo.History
Alfredo González Bridge defects and widening
The Alfredo González Bridge is an originally two lane per direction bridge over Virilla river, which became infamous for a detrimental infrastructure gaffe. In 2008 a metal plate expansion joint cover, between two segments of the bridge detached on the San José to Alajuela direction lane of the bridge. As it took nine years to repair the issue, the bridge, which was unnamed before, was known with dismay as the puente de la platina, translated as "the metal plate bridge".The first immediate repair attempt involved just using solder, which quickly detached again. In 2010 the Soares da Costa company was contracted to repair the issue, which also failed as the pour-over concrete applied, was pulverized by the vehicles. The Engineers and Architects Professional Association and the National Laboratory of Materials and Structural Models advised against this solution since its proposal.
It wasn't until 2016 that a proper solution was put in motion, by awarding a contract to the CODOCSA company to widen the bridge from two lanes to three in each direction, which by definition involved the reconstruction of the affected joint cover.
The now named bridge was reopened on May 2017, however being a three lane bridge it was deemed as already obsolete, as there is a plan to widen Route 1 to four lanes by direction between Uruca, San José and the Juan Santamaría Airport, therefore this bridge will become a bottleneck.
La Guaria creek culvert sinking
On June 26, 2012, a culvert on the La Guaria creek, near Heredia, was destroyed due to heavy rains, also it was found out that instead of proper filling on the foundations of the road when constructed in the 1960s, there were tree trunks and other organic materials that over time compacted.By 2008, a concerned neighbor presented to the authorities a proper study where it was highlighted that the situation was a certain outcome due to the urbanization of the neighboring rural areas. No actions were taken by the government authorities.
A new rectangular culvert was built by the contracted company MECO, during construction a couple of Bailey bridges with a capacity of 40 tons were put in place, which also were destroyed by an 84-ton truck crane on November 6, 2012.
San José to San Ramón enhancements
A heavy transited component of Route 1 is the segment between San José and San Ramón, from the junction with Route 39 until Juan Santamaría International Airport, the road will be widen to four lanes per direction, then from the airport to San Ramón which as of 2019 is a one lane per direction design, with several short upward segments with two lanes, will be widen to two lanes per direction.A private foreign contractor, OAS, was awarded the project, which under the private concession model would enhance and operate the road, as in Route 27, however due to the projected expensive toll fares, the affected residential and industrial neighbors of the route, formed the Foro de Occidente, to oppose the construction, which ultimately halted the project in April 2013, and the government had to revoke the contract with a cost of US$35 million and no work done.
Fideicomiso Ruta Uno, FRU, was created by Banco de Costa Rica to manage the finances of the works on Route 1. On July 2019, FRU was awarded the control of the toll stations of Río Segundo and Naranjo, which provide the main income of the project. It is estimated that the toll will increase in price at Río Segundo from CRC ₡75 to CRC ₡200, and at Naranjo from CRC ₡150 to CRC ₡400. The toll booths will include automated electronic toll collection.
OBIS projects
The Obras Impostergables, or OBIS, which translates to "works that can't be delayed", were announced by the central government in June 2018, and are seventeen auxiliary projects that were created around this road segment of Route 1, that can begin construction while the remaining analysis, design and expropriation phases advance on the main road project. These include new roads to link Route 1 with other areas, new junctions as well as new lanes on bridges that are a bottleneck to the road.Work was divided in four main batches, numbered one through four, then further divided into 1, 2a, 2b, 3 and 4. On September 2019, Fideicomiso Ruta Uno received bids for batch 1, their designs were ready by late April 2020, with a projected start date on mid May 2020.
| OBIS # | Batch | Name | Start Date | End Date | Description | Coordinates |
| 1 | 2a | Torres River bridge. | Widening to four lanes in each direction. | |||
| 2 | 2a | Loop road interchange. | Widening from four to six lanes in both levels, adding a side road on each exit | |||
| 3 | 4 | Juan Pablo II bridge. | Either reinforcement of the current structure, or demolition and total reconstruction | |||
| 4 | 1 | Castella Conservatory interchange. | May 2020 | New interchange and arterial road between Route 1 and Route 106 in Barreal, Heredia. | ||
| 5 | 2b | Existing toll booths upgrades. | A new lane at the Río Segundo, Alajuela toll booth | |||
| 5 | 2b | Existing toll booths upgrades. | New infrastructure at Naranjo toll booth | |||
| 6 | 1 | Firestone interchange. | May 2020 | Widening to eight lanes. | ||
| 7 | 1 | Segundo River bridge. | May 2020 | Widening to eight lanes total, four in each direction. | ||
| 8 | 4 | Segundo River junction. | ||||
| 9 | 4 | Road segment between Virilla River and Segundo River. | ||||
| 10 | 1 | Ciruelas River bridge. | May 2020 | Widening to six lanes total, three in each direction. | ||
| 11 | 3 | Coyol junction. | ||||
| 12 | 1 | Alajuela River bridge. | May 2020 | Widening to six lanes total, three in each direction. | ||
| 13 | 3 | FANAL junction. | ||||
| 14 | 4 | Grecia junction. | ||||
| 15 | 4 | Naranjo junction. | ||||
| 16 | 3 | Grande River junction. | ||||
| 17 | 4 | San Ramón junction. |
Barranca to Liberia enhancements
This project was split into three subprojects, to widen the road from one lane per direction to two lanes per direction, four lanes in total. Initially the plan from 2008 was to widen the segment from Peñas Blancas to Barranca, but by 2015 the segment from Liberia to Peñas Blancas was deemed unnecessary.Cañas to Liberia widening
Meetings started in 2012 and works concluded in January 2016, for this 50 km segment of Route 1, it also adds adding a 12 km bicycle lane and proper sidewalks. Eleven pedestrian bridges, nine underground and seven tree canopy wildlife crossings were also constructed.Three two level junctions were constructed in Cañas, Bagaces and Liberia. There is a possibility to add toll booths to the segment.