Southern development commission grills Autoridad de Carreteras over PR‑10 cost jump, timelines and local safety issues

The Comisión de Desarrollo del Sur convened April 17 to review progress and costs on a package of southern highway projects, focusing on the unfinished sections of PR‑10, the near‑complete PR‑9 segments and stabilization works on PR‑52. Committee members pressed Autoridad de Carreteras officials for per‑project cost details after officials reported a large increase in the PR‑10 estimate and described the environmental and procurement steps that remain.

Chair (name not given) opened the hearing and said the commission had received two key communications from the Autoridad de Carreteras: one in June 2021 that aggregated the remaining PR‑10 tranches at about $252.5 million and a later memorandum (June 14, 2023) reporting an overall upward revision to roughly $540 million. The chair noted the difference and asked the authority to explain the change, asking explicitly for a per‑project breakdown within five business days.

The chair cited specific figures and asked officials to justify them before the full chamber, saying, “Setenta y un millón de dólares por kilómetro. Setenta y un millón de dólares por kilómetro.” He later summarized the scale of the change: “aumento de doscientos ochenta y ocho…