SANTO DOMINGO - President Luis Abinader created the Public Infrastructure Oversight Commission by decree, with the aim of identifying, as soon as possible, the vulnerabilities of the main works built on places that represent a greater risk of deterioration, as a consequence of the extreme changes that climate change implies.
These public works include overpasses, tunnels, elevated sections, bridges, pedestrian bridges, slopes in critical condition, and public buildings.
The commission was created by Decree 603-23 and will report to the President of the Republic, administratively attached to the Ministry of the Presidency. Its functions will cease once the objectives for which it was created have been achieved.
Functions
Bimonthly reports will be submitted to the President of the Republic, so that he may instruct the competent institution to take the corresponding corrective measures, in order to avoid possible damage.
Furthermore, it must recommend to the President of the Republic the updating, by means of a decree, of the policies for preventive and corrective technical maintenance of all public works, which establish minimums for the supervision and maintenance of public works.
Members
The members will perform this work on a voluntary basis, without any compensation. The group will be chaired by geological engineer Osiris de León, while the executive director will be the head of the National Office for Seismic Evaluation and Vulnerability of Infrastructure and Buildings (Onesvie).
It will also include representatives from the Ministries of Public Works and Communications (MOPC), Housing, Habitat and Buildings (Mived) and the Dominican College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors (Codia).
Similarly, representatives from the engineering faculty of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (Intec), Pontifical Catholic University Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) and National University Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU), and may invite to its sessions other State or private sector agencies linked to the engineering and architecture sectors and deans of their respective academies.
The commission was formed after the collapse that occurred at the overpass of Avenida 27 de Febrero with Máximo Gómez, where 9 people died on Saturday, November 18.
