The 64-kilometer stretch linking San José with the Atlantic-region town of Guápiles is considered the most dangerous in Costa Rica, according to experts who participated in the 2017 Geotechnics Seminar held in San José.

This year’s event focused on mountain routes, and was sponsored by the Costa Rican Geotechnical Association (ACG) a non-governmental organization belonging to the Costa Rica Civil Engineering
Association (CIC)

Besides the not-so-surprising news about the country’s Highway 32 to the Atlantic coast, the engineers also revealed that Costa Rica is ill-prepared to mitigate landslides on many of the country’s windy, mountain roads, and that stormwater drainage is also inadequate on many of these routes, according to Sergio Sáenz, event coordinator,

In the specific case of Route 32, which passes through the Braulio Carrillo National Park, legislation restricts the types of safety interventions needed such as stabilizing the slopes of the mountains bordering the pass or creating drainage canals to prevent the slopes from becoming waterlogged. This and other issues were discussed by some 258 experts, including international specialists, at the event.

“The only solution to remedy this problem in route 32 would be a legal reform so that the National Park can be intervened, several options have been analyzed in the Legislative Assembly from which two possible measures have come out. One is to reduce the area of the park so that there is a section where work can be carried out, but that requires changes in legislation. The second possibility is for a citizen to file an injunction against the Ministry of the Environment and Energy invoking Article 21 of the Political Constitution that says: ‘Human life is inviolable,” explained Sáenz.

The event including technical specialists from Venezuela, Japan, Italy, Canada, Mexico as well as Costa Rica and for two days analyzed issues such as risk management of natural hazards on roads, stabilization of slopes, and mountain highway engineering.