SANTO DOMINGO– The Minister of Public Works and Communications, Deligne Ascención, emphasized this Wednesday that the development and compliance with prevention regulations, which must be maintained and strengthened to guarantee the safety of buildings and communication routes, constitutes the most important tool available in the face of the contingency of the forces of nature expressed in an earthquake of a certain magnitude.
The official spoke at the Sixth Conference on the Seismic Model Code for Latin America and the Caribbean, which includes the participation of institutions and experts in the field from different countries.
He explained that for the Dominican Republic, these working meetings represent an extraordinary flow of knowledge exchange, vital for the safety of its inhabitants and the preservation of our economic heritage.
“Our island is exposed to tectonic faults resulting from the conjunction of the Caribbean and North American plates, which generate tensions that have already caused events of some magnitude in our territory and that could in the future be causes of potential earthquakes,” he added.
He said that to anticipate and mitigate potential damage, the most important infrastructure in terms of roads are bridges, overpasses, level crossings and viaducts, which guarantee land communication and are vital for emergency operations, recovery and continuation of the country's economic dynamics in the event of earthquakes.
The official highlighted the plan implemented by this institution starting in August 2020 regarding the evaluation and expansion of measures to reinforce road structures - including bridges and highways nationwide - and make them more resistant to earthquakes.
The event, which takes place from July 26 to 28 at the Barceló hotel, has as its main objective to establish strategic alliances and promote best practices in the field of earthquake-resistant construction.
During her participation in the opening ceremony, Ascensión emphasized that the participating technicians represent, in a way, the guardian angels of our people and our heritage, "because we are all fully aware that earthquakes of a certain magnitude have a significant probability of occurring at any time in our region and directly affecting our lives, destroying our road infrastructure and buildings, generating material and human damage of incalculable pain and inestimable economic value.".
Evaluation plan
The Minister of Public Works explained that among the initiatives carried out during his administration is the development and implementation of a comprehensive plan for the evaluation and application of the necessary measures for the reinforcement of bridges and main road structures existing nationwide.
He recalled that the Ministry of Public Works and the National Office for Seismic Evaluation and Vulnerability of Infrastructure and Buildings (ONESVIE) signed an agreement in November 2022, in order to develop strategies for the evaluation and maintenance of the more than 2,000 bridges scattered throughout the country.
“By forming a team of technicians who have been working hard, we have been able to declare a significant number of these structures in a state of emergency and immediately begin the engineering intervention that will preserve or strengthen them,” he said.
He explained that many of the bridges recently repaired are more than 50 or 60 years old, so in addition to the resulting deterioration and the end of their useful life, they were built with outdated materials and techniques, and for a volume and weight of traffic typical of their time of construction.
He emphasized that the regulations are being implemented through a cooperation agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), entitled: “Resilient transport infrastructure: support for the development of transport infrastructure adaptable to climate change.”.
The event is coordinated by ONESVIE, in collaboration with the Chilean Construction Institute (ICC) and the Permanent Committee of the Seismic Model Code for Latin America and the Caribbean.
In addition, it has the support of the MOPC, as well as the Ministries of Housing and Buildings, and Education, the Dominican Society of Seismology and Seismic Engineering (Sodosísmica); Dominican College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors (Codia); National Center of Seismology (CNS), Society of Architects of the Dominican Republic, among others.
