Río Grande's Ruta 66 Exit Fix Now Hinges on a Federal Grant
On September 22, 2026, a Puerto Rico Senate committee held a site visit in Río Grande to check on the project meant to end the daily backup where Ruta 66 empties onto PR-3. The plan is still in design and permitting. Construction is scheduled for 2028 through 2032. According to El Nuevo Día's account of the visit, the estimated $136 million for the first phase isn't secured, and the Autoridad de Carreteras y Transportación (ACT) would have to compete for a federal grant to get it.
That changes what the wait is about. Once the design is delivered, the project's pace depends mostly on money and regional support. For the next few years, the change Río Grande drivers will actually feel is at the toll plaza, starting this month.
The project would build elevated crossings at the three PR-3 traffic lights in the Río Grande area, a stretch that runs from the end of Ruta 66 to the El Yunque entrance and the Wyndham Grand Río Mar. Of the three, the PR-186 junction is the one officials singled out. Senator Héctor Joaquín Sánchez Álvarez said that light causes delays of up to 45 minutes for drivers leaving Ruta 66. The plan replaces it with elevated ramps running directly toward San Juan and Fajardo.
The first construction phase would reach Alturas de Río Grande. It would cover the elevated structures, wider bridges over the waterways along the route, and a reconfigured PR-186. The Senate's release lists a wider set of work: expanding PR-3, removing the traffic lights within the design area, building marginal roads, and widening structures over bodies of water.
The senator also cited the Federal Highway Administration's traffic-flow grading system. He said this stretch of PR-3 grades between D and F, the most congested end of the scale.
The idea of a faster road east of Río Grande goes back more than a decade. In 2015, the plan was to convert PR-3 between Río Grande and Fajardo into an expressway as the last piece of a direct route from Carolina to eastern Puerto Rico, using overpasses to get rid of the signalized intersections.
On January 11, 2024, then-Governor Pedro Pierluisi said an extension of PR-66 from Río Grande to Fajardo was off the table, according to Victoria 840. He said it would cut through ecologically sensitive land, including what he believed were the foothills of El Yunque. The replacement plan was the elevated crossings at the three Río Grande lights. Pierluisi said it wasn't an extension of Ruta 66 but that traffic would move much faster than it does now.
Edwin González Montalvo, then ACT's executive director, called the replacement "challenging." He listed the reasons at the time: businesses line both sides of PR-3, high-voltage power lines would have to be relocated, and bridges would have to be widened. He also said the design was advanced and would go to bid "in the coming years." Those same obstacles show up in the 2026 schedule. The Senate release says the 2026–2028 phase includes buying land, some of it through expropriation, to make room for the wider road.
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| February 2015 | Plan announced to convert PR-3 between Río Grande and Fajardo into an expressway |
| January 2024 | PR-66 extension ruled out; elevated crossings at three PR-3 lights chosen instead |
| September 22, 2026 | Senate site visit under Senate Resolution 544 |
| October 2026 | ACT committed to delivering the design |
| 2027 | Target for finishing design and permits |
| 2026 to 2028 | Design, planning, budgeting and land acquisition |
| 2028 to 2032 | Construction window |
The Senate's release and El Nuevo Día's report on the September site visit describe the funding differently. The Senate release calls the roughly $136 million first phase federally funded. El Nuevo Día quotes Sánchez Álvarez as saying the Pierluisi administration funded design and permits, while the construction money still has to be found through a competitive federal grant.
The senator was openly frustrated with the pace. In El Nuevo Día's report, translated here from Spanish, he said:
"This project began three years ago. The funds were allocated and there is a commitment to deliver the design in October. For us, it is a bit frustrating, because there is urgency with this project for the mobility and economic development of the area."
He also named one step that could strengthen the grant application. While design and permits wrap up, he said it is crucial for the region's mayors to certify the project as a regional priority. For anyone who drives this stretch, municipal action on that certification is one of the few signs of progress they can watch in public over the next year. The other is whether ACT actually delivers the design this month.
PR-3 will look the same for years. The Ruta 66 toll plazas changed in January, and the system behind them changes again on October 19.
Class 1 toll rates on PR-66 since January 1, 2026:
The bigger change is enforcement. Starting Monday, October 19, 2026, ACT will reactivate administrative fines in the AutoExpreso system. González Montalvo is now both Secretary of Transportation and Public Works and ACT's executive director. According to WALO Radio, he urged drivers to check their accounts ahead of time, make sure their tags are properly registered, and keep enough balance to cover tolls. The agency ties the reactivation to its certified Fiscal Plan. The restart follows an AutoExpreso modernization that replaced the physical toll-plaza equipment on PR-20, PR-52, PR-53 and PR-66.
The schedule matters because traffic demand east of Río Grande is set to grow. Sánchez Álvarez tied the ramps directly to Roosevelt Roads in Ceiba. He said that once the old base's utility issues are resolved, a major development will come to the region. He also pointed to the hotels along the route: two in Río Grande, one in Luquillo and several in Fajardo.
Roosevelt Roads is still in its preparation stage. In September 2026, crews began demolishing and removing structures from the former Coast Guard pier to make way for the Marine Business, Research and Innovation Center (MBRIC). Its design was 90% complete, with the exterior utilities and parking still to be designed. Bidding is projected for the first quarter of 2027, construction for 2027, and completion for 2029. On those timelines, MBRIC is scheduled to finish around the time PR-3 construction would be getting underway in Río Grande.
Farther east, the PR-3 rehabilitation in Fajardo and Luquillo shows how long these timelines can stretch. When it was announced in January 2024, the roughly $19 million project covered kilometers 42.5 to 47.6. It included paving, safety work, electrical utilities, traffic signals, pedestrian bridges and drainage, with a target finish of late 2025. In July 2026, ACT was still announcing pavement rehabilitation on PR-3 in Fajardo, with weekday lane closures and partial intersection closures scheduled through September 30. No update since then confirms whether that work has finished.
For drivers heading east toward the resort corridor, the Río Mar entrance or El Yunque, the next milestones are the October design delivery and the 2027 permits. The Río Grande corridor between the end of Ruta 66 and the forest and coastline is where the first phase would be built, up to Alturas de Río Grande.
Road projects like this one affect how a property's access and location are judged, especially along PR-3. If you own in Río Grande and want to talk through what the PR-186 ramps and the 2028–2032 schedule could mean for your property, the team at Luis Alejandro Perez can walk you through it. Schedule your private consultation.
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