On Wednesday April 23th, machinery arrived to prepare for closing the bridge over Buena Vista river between Bar Las Vegas and the sawmill, the main route entering Samara from Nicoya. On Thursday morning, work began on a provisional route around the bridge by Vista Verde Restaurant. Thursday afternoon, around 12:30 p.m., the bridge collapsed as a trailer loaded with heavy stone was passing over it.

"We went out to lend a hand to the guy," recounted Walter Rodriguez Alvarado, who lives and works at the sawmill. Fortunately the driver was uninjured. "It was just the scare," he said. Then he and his coworkers were asked to help close off the road. 

Rolando Vasquez Jimenez, inspector for H.Soliz, the construction company working on the provisional route, confirmed that they started work in the morning and had already made the provisional route by the time the bridge collapsed around 12:30 p.m. He said that at the time the only work scheduled was the preparation of the provisional route, but the collapse of the bridge means that installation of a new bridge will take place more quickly. 
  
Miguel Aroyo, an engineer for Conavi who had inspected the bridge and recommended it's replacement, said they hope to start work on a new bridge within a week – April 1st – and finish the bridge in two to three weeks.
     
He explained that one of the bridge's beams was fractured when he inspected it. About five days before the bridge collapsed, they had installed signs warning that the bridge was in poor condition. However, Arroyo said that people pass over the bridge anyway, that it doesn't matter to them and this is especially a problem with overweight trucks or trailers.

He estimated that the original bridge could withstand about 25 to 30 tons of weight, and the new bridge they will install is designed for 40 tons. However, some trucks pass over bridges carrying loads as heavy as 50 tons.

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