Costa Rica Ordered to Fix Roundabouts Built Too Small for Its Own Trucks
COSTA RICA · INFRASTRUCTURE
Key Facts
- —The order The Contraloría General de la República has ordered CONAVI to correct safety defects on Route 32.
- —The defect Seven roundabouts were designed for a 16.8-metre articulated vehicle. The corridor carries 22.4-metre cargo units.
- —The gap 5.6 metres, which is why heavy vehicles cross into opposing lanes and pedestrian space.
- —The evidence Drone footage confirmed the violations.
- —The deadlines Corrective measures adopted by 30 October 2026, full implementation by 30 March 2027.
- —The cost US$1.4 million more on four roundabouts, on top of about US$6.8 million already spent against an original US$5.4 million budget.
Costa Rica built seven roundabouts on its main Caribbean freight corridor for trucks 5.6 metres shorter than the ones that use it.
Costa Rica’s comptroller general has ordered the national roads council to correct design defects on Route 32, after finding that roundabouts on the country’s principal Caribbean freight corridor cannot accommodate the vehicles that use it.
What Is Wrong
Seven roundabouts on Route 32 were designed around a WB-15 articulated vehicle, 16.8 metres long. The corridor serves the Caribbean ports and carries WB-20 cargo units of 22.4 metres.
The difference is 5.6 metres, and the consequence is that heavy vehicles negotiating the roundabouts cross into opposing lanes, into pedestrian and cycle space, and onto green areas.
The Contraloría confirmed the violations with drone footage rather than relying on reported incidents, which is why the finding is difficult to contest.
What It Costs
Correcting four of the problematic roundabouts will require an additional US$1.4 million.
That comes on top of roughly US$6.8 million already spent against an original budget of US$5.4 million. The Contraloría describes the result as direct patrimonial damage to the public treasury.
CONAVI’s board must adopt corrective measures by 30 October 2026, with full implementation required by 30 March 2027.
Why Route 32 Matters
Route 32 connects San José and the central valley to Limón and Moín on the Caribbean coast, which is where the great majority of Costa Rican container traffic moves.
It is a single corridor carrying a national export function, and it has a long history of landslides, closures and delayed expansion work. Every disruption on it reaches the ports within hours.
A design error that forces the country’s largest trucks to leave their lane at seven points on that corridor is therefore a freight problem as much as a safety one.
The comptroller’s finding does not allege corruption. It describes a specification that did not match the traffic, approved and built anyway, and a bill the public is paying twice.
How a Specification Error Survives to Construction
Roundabout geometry is set by a design vehicle, a standard template that determines turning radii and lane widths. Choosing the wrong template produces a structure that works on paper and fails in traffic.
The WB-15 and WB-20 designations are standard classifications, and the difference between them is exactly the kind of decision that is made once early in a design and then propagated through every drawing that follows.
What the comptroller is describing is therefore a single early error that nobody caught in review, on a corridor whose traffic composition was known to everyone involved.
The corrective bill of US$1.4 million on four roundabouts, against US$6.8 million already spent, is the price of that omission.
The Corridor’s Longer Record
Route 32 has been under expansion for the better part of a decade, on a project financed with Chinese credit and repeatedly delayed by landslides, design disputes and contractor problems.
The road crosses the Braulio Carrillo national park, where the terrain is steep, saturated and prone to slides, and closures there cut the central valley off from the Caribbean ports for hours or days at a time.
Costa Rica has no practical alternative route for container traffic to Limón and Moín. That is what turns every engineering problem on this corridor into a national logistics problem, and it is why a comptroller’s order about roundabout geometry is worth reporting at all.
More: Latin America news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the Contraloría order?
That CONAVI correct safety defects on Route 32, with measures adopted by 30 October 2026 and implemented by 30 March 2027.
What is the defect?
Seven roundabouts designed for 16.8-metre articulated vehicles on a corridor carrying 22.4-metre cargo units.
What does it cost to fix?
An additional US$1.4 million on four roundabouts, against roughly US$6.8 million already spent on an original US$5.4 million budget.
How was it established?
Drone footage confirmed heavy vehicles crossing into opposing lanes and pedestrian space.
Why does Route 32 matter?
It is the main corridor between San José and the Caribbean ports at Limón and Moín, carrying most Costa Rican container traffic.
Sources: Contraloria General de la República, Delfino, La Nacion Costa Rica.
This article was drafted with automated assistance and reviewed before publication. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief