This country continued to have bridge troubles, this time when a giant crane caused one of four Bailey bridges on the heavily traveled General Canas Highway to collapse under its weight.

The load bearing capacity of a Bailey bridge is 40 tons but the huge crane that tried, unsuccessfully, to cross weighed in at 84 tons. It was registered as belonging to the Quiros S.A. company.

The collapsed bridge is one of four placed hastily after a section of the highway washed out, leaving a gigantic hole on July 2. Repairs were not expected to be complete so the temporary bridges could be removed until the end of the year.

The collapse Tuesday caused huge traffic jams for commuters heading from San Jose to the second largest city in the country, Alajuela. Motorists were forced to approach Alajuela by going to Heredia first, or through Barrial de Heredia or on Route 27 using the Caldera Highway.

For them it was a case of you can’t get there from here…

The driver of the mobile crane was uninjured and immediately called the company headquarters to report the mishap, a company spokesperson told La Nacion.

Government spokesman Francisco Chacon said that President Laura Chinchilla gave orders Tuesday afternoon to reopen the route as soon as possible. That will not be simple, however. The multi-wheeled mobile crane remained on the twisted span of bridge unable to go forward or to retreat Tuesday.

Likely, the mishap will put another of Public Works Minister Pedro Castro’s challenges further back on the back burner — the terribly worn Juan Pablo II Bridge surface.

The thick concrete has outlived its expected life of 30 years after being pounded by about 90,000 vehicles per day. But the surface isn’t all that’s wrong.

The bridge floods every time it rains due to its culverts being plugged by garbage and its New Jersey type concrete railing battered by bad drivers. The 200 meter long, four lane bridge is also located on the General Cañas route.

On Oct. 17, Minister Castro termed the chronic bridge problems “a national epidemic” and has called in experts to help him, even before th Bailey bridge mishap.

On Wednesday, the national newspaper La Nacion reported that schools in Heredia and Aljuela would be excused from giving classes to aleviate the congested traffic situation.

La Nacion interviewed the mobile crane driver, Alberto Martin who sounded as if he were still stunned by being at the center of so much turmoil: “Diay, (a common exclamation in this country) when I knew what had happened, it all came crashing down!” he said.

Persistently asked by the reporter why he used a Bailey bridge instead of another route, he said he had used a different route to get to the job “at Hotel Herradura” that day. “It’s that one goes everywhere to do the jobs… Besides, there was no sign giving permissable load limit on the bridge.”