Thursday September 6th a metal beam section of the bridge (referred to as “La platina” in Costa Rica) of the Juan Pablo II bridge on the General Cañas highway connecting San Jose and Alajuela, detached, leaving pins uncovered that caused more than 40 vehicles to end up with flat tires.

The problem is on the road from San Jose to Alajuela, the Traffic Police are already in the area informing drivers to prevent more problems or accidents.

Workers from the Ministry of Public Transportation will be fixing the problem this afternoon; in the meantime, precaution or the use of alternative routes is suggested to drivers.

Lets remember that in May 2017 in this same road the Alfredo González Flores bridge, better known as “La Platina bridge”, finally reopened after years of problems and temporary repairs.

Close to 100,000 cars use this route on a daily basis.

Update 2:10 p.m.

The Ministry of Public Work and Transportation (MOPT), intervened urgently the damage at the Juan Pablo II bridge in La Uruca.

According to MOPT the damage involved a detached expansion joint, this damage is product of the normal deterioration of the infrastructure.

“Immediate work fixed the problem and normalized transit”, states the press release.

MOPT will be presenting in 15 days a structural proposal for the maintenance and general attention for this bridge to avoid situations like the one that occurred.