he transport ministry reached an agreement Thursday with the company that will build and run the San José-Caldera highway to the Pacific coast.

The deal had been stalled over technical and financial details. The agreement reached Thursday still has to be approved by the Contraloria de la República, the financial watchdog agency.

However, if the agreement gets the OK, work would start in six months. The project, when done, would cut the time and discomfort in driving between the capital and the Pacific coast.

News of this type has been announced before. The work was supposed to start in April.

The announcement Thursday said the cost of the project had increased to $230 million from the original $158 million. An announcement from the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes said that the price hike also includes improvements in drainage, guarantees in the durability of the pavement and more work on stabilizing slopes.

There has been no change in the toll now set at $2.70 for a passenger car or the 25-year term during which the company will collect the toll to pay for the investment in completing the routes.

The highway has earned the reputation of being cursed because the central government has been trying to get the project going for years. Bridges have been installed for at least six years. The concessionaire, Autopistas del Sol S.A., has been fined $50,000 a day because work has not started. There was no word Thursday if the fines would be waived due to the new agreement.

The Consejo Nacional de Concesiones is involved in the agreement with the ministry. Autopista is a creation of two Spanish firms, a Costa Rican company and a Portuguese entity. The original contract was signed in March 2006.

In addition to the increase in the investment in the project, the addition to the contract will give the company six more months to do the work. The country also is backing amounts of minimum income, said the ministry.

Also a financial structure is being set up so that the company can easily obtain the money that is generated by the project, said the announcement.

The job is in three parts. The first enhances the stretch of road from La Sabana to Ciudad Colón, now called the Autopista Próspero Fernández. Much of this is now a four-lane divided highway but west of Santa Ana the road becomes two lane. This work, according to the ministry, will take about a year.

The big job is the Ciudad Colón-Orotina highway, some 39 kms. or about 24 miles. The estimated time of constrcution is two years, said the ministry.

The third part of the project is the enhancement of a 24-km. stretch from the Orotina traffic interchange to the Puerto de Caldera. This road now exists, and the upgrades are expected to take but six months, said the ministry.

Real estate developers and property owners have been frustrated by the slow pace of the highway construction. The new road is expected to give an economic boost to the central Pacific in the same way that the Puente La Amistad over the Río Tempisque did for the Nicoya Peninsula.