Thank you President Fernandez for directing tax pesos for the new road between Jarabacoa and El Rio, on the way to Constanza!
We've driven the old road a few times in the past and I have done it once on a V-Strom. To put it mildly it was a bad, unsafe road: very narrow following a mountain ridge, poor drainage, no safety rails and dirt that would wash away.
No longer.
We've heard of the construction on the road since Oderbrecht moved into our old house in Jarabacoa. Three weeks ago we talked to some family members who took it and said it was still a long way from completing. But as part of the www.MotoCaribe.com pre-season scouting we checked it out today knowing it is supposed to be fully christened and opened in January.
Wow! Another amazing stretch of fine engineering.
The entire road from Jarabacoa to El Rio is about 17 miles. Of that the whole road is paved except for two stretches, one of 3 miles and one of 2.3 miles. And the 2.3 mile stretch was being worked on today. Both stretches aren't that bad although one has a lot of loose gravel on downhill areas that would make for a butt-clinching motorcycle ride utilizing all control and braking skills. But that is a temporary situation.
The guardrails are maybe 10% up with nasty posts sticking up all over and there are very, vert few turn-offs because of the deep concrete drainage ditches along the entire route. I'm sure this will be added before officially called "opened."
We took pictures along the way:
A stretch of unpaved road:
Randon views of the road:
(I cannot WAIT to motersickle through THIS
Amazing vistas:
An "obligation" to honk. :cheeky: Now we know why horns are part of the culture:
I found this interesting. Certainly in the mountains where the road is cut through erosion is a real problem. Here the engineers put a sort of growing fabric carpet directly on the dirt. It grows and I assume rootsinto the dirt in an effort of natural soil preservation:
The Big Picture of the growing carpet:
Overall, very impressive. It is fine to use as is with just a regular vehicle and MotoCaribe won't hesitate to use this amazing road as part of our upcoming tours. Additionally, this will allow for produce from the Constanza valley to be transported to the north much more efficiently.
Well done! I look forward to it's final completion!
We've driven the old road a few times in the past and I have done it once on a V-Strom. To put it mildly it was a bad, unsafe road: very narrow following a mountain ridge, poor drainage, no safety rails and dirt that would wash away.
No longer.
We've heard of the construction on the road since Oderbrecht moved into our old house in Jarabacoa. Three weeks ago we talked to some family members who took it and said it was still a long way from completing. But as part of the www.MotoCaribe.com pre-season scouting we checked it out today knowing it is supposed to be fully christened and opened in January.
Wow! Another amazing stretch of fine engineering.
The entire road from Jarabacoa to El Rio is about 17 miles. Of that the whole road is paved except for two stretches, one of 3 miles and one of 2.3 miles. And the 2.3 mile stretch was being worked on today. Both stretches aren't that bad although one has a lot of loose gravel on downhill areas that would make for a butt-clinching motorcycle ride utilizing all control and braking skills. But that is a temporary situation.
The guardrails are maybe 10% up with nasty posts sticking up all over and there are very, vert few turn-offs because of the deep concrete drainage ditches along the entire route. I'm sure this will be added before officially called "opened."
We took pictures along the way:
A stretch of unpaved road:
Randon views of the road:
(I cannot WAIT to motersickle through THIS
Amazing vistas:
An "obligation" to honk. :cheeky: Now we know why horns are part of the culture:
I found this interesting. Certainly in the mountains where the road is cut through erosion is a real problem. Here the engineers put a sort of growing fabric carpet directly on the dirt. It grows and I assume rootsinto the dirt in an effort of natural soil preservation:
The Big Picture of the growing carpet:
Overall, very impressive. It is fine to use as is with just a regular vehicle and MotoCaribe won't hesitate to use this amazing road as part of our upcoming tours. Additionally, this will allow for produce from the Constanza valley to be transported to the north much more efficiently.
Well done! I look forward to it's final completion!
