Gigantic Crater Shuts Down The General Cañas

The autopista General Cañas, besides being the busiest highway in Costa Rica is well known for its "Platina" bridge, the bridge over the Virilla river that just can't get fixed right.

But, Platina now has competition, a giant crater, located east of the Los Arcos residential in Cariari, westbound to San José from Alejuela. The crater was caused by a broken water main that appeared overnight Tuesday.

The crater spans two lanes of the three lanes of the autopista, forcing a complete closure from the Juan Pablo Segunod bridge, as traffic is being diverted onto Heredia by way of La Uruca.

Repair crews are on the scene this morning to tackle the problem on the recently repaved section of the autopista.

The social media has had a field day, in particular the blogger El Chamuko, who took license to use the Muppets of Sesame Street (Plaza Sesamo in Spanish) to make light of the situation.



In the photoshopped image we see The Muppets sticking out of the crater and saying hello. The caption on the blog says, ¡Hola Tía Laurita! - Hello Aunt Laura - referring to presidenta Laura Chinchilla.

If you are travelling to points west from San José, including the airport, the best alternate is by way of Ruta 27 (San José - Caldera) to Lindora in Santa Ana, to San Antonio de Belen and back on the General Cañas in the area of Intel.


Photo courtesy El Infierno en Costa Rica