In the Dominican Republic, we continue to invest billions in public and private infrastructure, but we have yet to internalize a basic technical truth: maintenance is prevention. And prevention is the most efficient way to protect human lives and avoid structural cost overruns for the State and investors.
A project doesn't end when it's inaugurated. That's when its useful life cycle begins. Without planned maintenance, any building—be it a hospital, school, bridge, corporate building, or residential building—starts a progressive process of deterioration that, if not addressed in time, becomes a risk.
Failures that are not accidental
Structural failures, detachments, severe leaks, corrosion of metal elements, electrical overloads or explosions due to gas accumulation are not usually sudden events; they are, in most cases,a consequence of lack of inspection, continuous supervision and preventive maintenance.
The true cost of not preventing
The economic difference between prevention and correction is enormous. In technical terms, repairing a compromised structure can cost three to ten times more than maintaining it properly from the time it was put into service. As deterioration progresses, it's no longer a matter of maintenance, but rather rehabilitation or partial reconstruction, which entails service interruptions, disruption to users, and a greater budgetary burden.
Recently, President Luis Abinader announced that the government allocated a special contribution of RD$2.5 billion to the Ministry of Public Works, corresponding to last year's budget and that of 2025, to make necessary corrections.
This data reveals a compelling reality: when permanent maintenance is neither structural nor systematic, the State ends up making extraordinary investments to correct situations that could have been mitigated with continuous prevention.
In the public sector, a lack of maintenance creates a complex financial cycle: new infrastructure is built while existing infrastructure requires additional resources for repairs. This increases public spending and limits the government's capacity to invest in new social programs.
In the private sector as well, buildings without maintenance lose value, increase claims, raise insurance premiums, and expose owners and developers to greater legal risks.
Insurance companies calculate operational risk; when maintenance programs are lacking, premiums increase because the probability of an accident is higher. What isn't invested in prevention is paid for in insurance, litigation, and costly repairs.
Maintenance as a structural policy
Maintenance should be considered an ongoing policy. This includes regular inspections, structural reviews, evaluation of electrical and gas installations, monitoring of plumbing systems, and the creation of safety protocols.
But even more importantly: effective maintenance begins during the construction phase. If the project wasn't technically supervised from the outset, if processes weren't documented, and if there was no control over materials and specifications, subsequent maintenance loses its effectiveness.
Technical supervision: the first preventive filter
Therefore, I have repeatedly emphasized the need to guarantee specialized and independent technical supervision of the builder at every stage of the construction process. Supervision is the first line of defense; maintenance ensures the continuity of a culture of control.
In construction, what is not maintained deteriorates; and what deteriorates ends up costing much more than preventing it.
Maintenance is a strategy for safety and financial sustainability. And unless we adopt it as a permanent structural policy, we will continue to pay, in public resources and in human risk, the cost of neglecting prevention.
In the Dominican Republic, it is essential to promote a culture of post-construction maintenance as a permanent practice of prevention and sustainability in public and private works.
Recommended readings:
- Lack of maintenance and a poor culture of prevention cause many of the leaks, says Luis Manuel Rosario of ATTICO Constructora
- From the Jet Set tragedy to hospitals at risk: the silent infrastructure crisis in the Dominican Republic
- Construction in 2025: collapses, oversight and a sector that hit rock bottom
