National Route 35 (Costa Rica)


National Primary Route 35, or just Route 35 is a National Road Route of Costa Rica, located in the Alajuela province, and it is a road that serves the central north area of Costa Rica.

Description

Completely contained in the Alajuela province, this is as of 2019 an almost straight road between San Carlos and Los Chiles, this road together with Route 4 and Route 32 allows the access between the Caribbean side of the country to the northern Alajuela districts and Nicaragua.
Since 2005 a new segment is under construction to expand the road to Route 1 towards San Jose, the project is known as the Eje Interior Norte.
In Alajuela province the route covers San Carlos canton, Los Chiles canton.

National Route 768

National Tertiary Route 768 was a 6km road created to link the north end of Route 35 at Los Chiles to Nicaragua National Route 25B. It is now part of Route 35. Allows international access to Nicaragua using the migration checkpoint of Las Tablillas.

History

New road to San Carlos

A new road between Route 1 and San Carlos, using the current Route 35 has been in construction since 2005, approved by the Legislative Assembly in December 1969, the initial plans are from the first half of the 1970s, with designs from 1989. The project was split into three subprojects, with a projected finish date of around 2025, after more than fifty years of the project ratification.

North end (Abundancia to Florencia)

Finished in September 2018, this segment connects in a more straightforward way the towns of Ciudad Quesada and Florencia. The segment has a length of 5.6km whereas the previous journey was of 8.1km using Route 141 through a windy narrow road and several small towns. A new junction with a ground level roundabout and a lower level direct road was constructed.

Central segment (Sifón to Abundancia)

Of around 30km, construction started in 2005, however it was stalled due to several geological, environmental and financial issues, including:
In August 2018 the government then suspended the contract with the Sánchez-Carvajal construction company. As of 2019 there is an estimated 60% completion of this segment, however steel materials have been stolen due to the abandoned state of the project.
This project is now further split:
In the planning and design stage as of September 2019, construction will have a planned start date of January 2022 and finish date of March 2024.