Infrastructure is one of the biggest challenges Costa Rica has and one of the top priorities for the new government as established by President Carlos Alvarado; the new Minister of Public Works and Transportation, Rodolfo Mendez Mata, is aware of the difficulties ahead and willing to resign if he does not reach his goals.

Mendez Mata took his position as new Minister of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) this past Tuesday May 8, however, this is not the first time he has sat in this chair. Mendez was in charge of the institution in 1978 and again in 1998.

The first goal of the 81-year old engineer and politician is to eliminate 28 “bottlenecks” that cause the main traffic jams in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) within a year’s time; the Minister went as far as saying that if he is not able to reduce considerably and make an impact in the traffic jams in this first year (by May 15, 2019) he will resign his position “there are no excuses”.

“I understand the challenge ahead… it’s a hindered ministry, absolutely hindered; I know it is an unproductive ministry for many reason…”, commented Mendez.

Another of the criticisms he has made is about how the MOPT has been working related to the high costs of some of the public works that the State awards to private construction companies. “Special Contracts”

“One of the concerns I bring to the ministry is making a revision of the specifications that can be leading to works being done for these amounts. We are not a rich country, we do not have the luxury of building without the necessary mediation…”, established the minister.

Mendez also emphasized on the need of at least an additional 400 traffic police to effectively cover the different areas of the GAM that present higher traffic areas. The traffic police will have an important role over the next twelve months since their assistance will be required to fulfill the goal of reducing or eliminating the different bottlenecks.