It represents the most important investment by the Dominican government in road infrastructure works.
Santiago de los Caballeros has a new look to welcome its visitors. President Luis Abinader led the inauguration ceremony this weekend for the new entrance to the "Heart City," a project built at a cost exceeding RD$1.108 billion.
This is the 300th project inaugurated by President Abinader and built by the Ministry of Public Works and Communications.
The section of the highway that includes a length of eight kilometers, and from the entrance to the Hodelpa Hotel to the Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration, the road has been converted into an urban highway, with six lanes, three in each direction, and a width of 28.8 meters.
The entire route is illuminated, with turnarounds that guarantee the safety of drivers and passengers, with modern signage, both for guidance and warning and regulation of the intense vehicular flow that travels through this road, explained Deligne Ascención, Minister of Public Works, who explained that the works are part of the comprehensive project of reconstruction, expansion and modernization of the Duarte highway.
It includes road improvement and widening works, beautification of the entire route, construction of drainage and channeling of water runoff, lighting and removal of high voltage towers.
Also, land expropriations and improvements, as well as the cleanup of illegal occupations and makeshift settlements that affected the environment and created a disorderly urban environment
“This project represents the most important investment by the Dominican government in road infrastructure works, as it is the country's main communication route, directly crossing 14 provinces, and directly impacting the economic and social development of our nation,” Ascención highlighted.
“At intersections with traffic lights, pedestrian safety is guaranteed, and regulated vehicle movement is ensured at the interchanges leading to the Circunvalación Avenue or the Cibao International Airport. In some sections, a marginal relief road, with its sidewalks and curbs, guarantees the integration of local traffic with the express flow that circulates on the entrance highway,” he explained.
The official said that the transformation and modernization of the new avenue provides the Heart City with a world-class urban environment.
“It avoids the congestion that plagued those entering from the highway to the center of Santiago and created a delay and a disorderly flow of traffic, which caused frequent accidents and delays and unforeseen events that constituted a calamity for its inhabitants,” he said.
He stated that the investment made has been 1,108.6 million pesos and has been carried out by the JM-LAS Construction Company.
“The investment made in this modernization project in Santiago is part of a set of investments that we have called the “Urban Accessibility Plan of the Heart City”, aimed at facilitating the integration between the traditional and residential neighborhoods of the city with the expanding areas in the peripheral municipalities, beautifying the entrance and exit of the city and guaranteeing access to the neighborhoods of the northern zone with the southern sector of the urban cone.”.
He said that with the renovation of the Duarte Highway along its entire length, the improvement of the Santiago bypass, the repaving and sanitation of the Joaquín Balaguer Highway, the construction of the Navarrete bypass, and the rehabilitation of 70 kilometers from Navarrete to Montecristi, “we are transforming the economic life of the entire Central Cibao region, the urban area of Santiago and its municipalities, the Northwest provinces, and restoring Puerto Plata and the North Coast as a bastion of world tourism.”.
