"From now on, the country will have modern regulations adapted to climate change and in accordance with the new world order of engineering." Néstor Matos, Director of Standards, Regulations and Public Works Systems.
SANTO DOMINGO –Starting in January 2023, the country will have new protocols for its road infrastructure. The Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC) assures that with the implementation of the new regulations, engineering professionals will have a modern tool at their disposal, in line with current standards.
"From now on, six regulations will be in operation, divided into three for roads and three for bridges. In both cases, they include one regulation for design, one for maintenance, and one for construction," declared engineer Néstor Matos, director of Standards, Regulations, and Public Works Systems.
Matos said that the country will now have modern regulations adapted to climate change and in accordance with the new world order of engineering.
His statements were issued during the symposium “Regulations for the Design, Construction and Maintenance of Roads, Highways and Bridges of the Dominican Republic”, held over the weekend at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo.
The meeting included the presentation of a proposal, supported by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), to update the technical regulations for the repair, construction and modernization of bridges and roads in the country.
In his opening speech, Deligne Ascención Burgos, Minister of Public Works, presented the Dominican Republic's Road Development Project, which seeks to guarantee the construction of a "safe, resistant and resilient road infrastructure in the face of disasters that complies with the necessary provisions not only to guarantee safety, but also to preserve the environment."
“This project is being carried out under the framework of the collaboration of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), entitled Resilient Transport Infrastructure, support for the development of transport infrastructure adaptable to Climate Change,” he said.
Ascención Burgos stated that the current road regulations in the country date back to the 1980s, which is almost four decades since their publication, making their update with new engineering contributions imminent.
He said that new technologies in the sector and new scientific advances, as well as aspects such as climate change and road safety, are priority issues that must be taken into account, to consider them as vital, which are not considered in the current regulations.
“Although the problem of traffic and road accidents is not new, undoubtedly due to the increase in the vehicle fleet, exponential levels of the last 40 years, this had to be relaunched and evidently we have been able to work with this regulation,” he added.
