Construction of a US$15-million border bridge over the Sixaola River is expected to start in June.
The new bridge will be 260m long and 17m wide and will replace an existing structure that was built in 1908 and which has been declared unsafe. As well as carrying vehicles the new Sixaola Bridge will include pedestrian and cycle lanes. The bridge will link the southern Panamanian town of Guabito and the northern Costa Rican town of Sixaola on the Caribbean side of the two neighbouring countries.
The governments of Panama and Costa Rica aim to publish the tender by late April 2016.
US$10 million of the structure will be financed by the Infrastructure Fund for Mesoamerican and Caribbean Countries (Yucatán Agreement), with the remaining US$5 million provided by Costa Rica.
Panama, for its part, will provide personnel and equipment support for the structure.
According to Omar Gómez of Panama’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, construction of the structure will begin in June this year.
