Look at today's papers! The Supreme Court has had to ORDER Diandino Pe?a to turn over the paperwork for the Metro....And then his lawyer reveals that some of the paperwork does not EXIST!!
A 25 billion peso project (at last estimates) and there are no studies??? Studies that were said to cost RD$700 million???? Geological/geophysical surveys of the ground and so forth!!
OMG!! And people are going to ride on this monstrosity??
HB
Sometimes when the tide is against your project some toes must be stepped on or in the case of the Metro "bypassed".
To build a tunnel under the streets of SD is not comparable to the NY Subway under Grand Central Station or the Paris Metro. You have to understand that the SD Metro is only a few meters below ground and the geological/geophysical surveys are needed only to satisfy the warranted concerns of the local population regarding environmental/social impact unlike the case for the actual construction of it by the engineers.
This case reminds me a reading from the work of Robert Moses in NY, a true titan of future living needs. Moses crushed every single obstacle he had on his way, one of which is a remarkable runabout a still standing building in downtown Manhattan and a landmark of its own.
The SD Metro is getting built because not one single serious credited engineer would allow his/her name to be linked to a future disaster like many claim it could turn out to be sans the surveys and studies.
The trench method is not any different than the way almost all tall structures get their bases built atop of. You must understand that even under the seismic turbulence that the region undergoes form time to time; the tunnels will be capable of taking it just like all those even older tall structures have done so in the past and sure will in the future.
I believe that the SD Metro if in fact it is a phase by phase project to cover most of the D.N. and surrounding areas as proposed by the Master Plan of Opret. Then it will provide much needed alternative transportation to a city that proves to be among the top worst cities with the highest level of population congestion in the WORDL!!!
The big point that the Metro makes is that it was done with little pre-planning as the route and method of deployment changed from trench to deep tunnel to elevated and so on. As such the initial calculations of the overall cost kept upping the bar.
Given the potential of the DR to produce renewal form of energies to satisfy local demand and even export (Ethanol, Corn based, Solar, Wind, etc...) the investment into a type of mass transportation may tip the balance for the country's self sufficiency.
The DR produces good quality steel and polycarbonates that are extracted from the available raw materials from under-exploited and under explored natural resources. As such it could keep up to the needs of the steel rail system requires, unlike the tires and related parts for buses and cars that prove year after year to make the country even more dependent on foreign resources.
Train carts are built with long term life expectancies, given good maintenance they could easy outlast their expiry date. The DR has a good opportunity to learn quickly and train the vast pool of mechanical engineers via a secondary country to have a home grown capacity to churn out spares as needed.
The Metros in use today on most cities started the same way, with major controversy and heavy public subsidy. But not one single city of those would contemplate eliminating it for anything in the world!
You could argue that the gov should have put the money into education, new buses, hospitals, etc... But for someone born in the DR that is just the same of what always happens and never things get any better....
We had a major investment in the 86-88 into top of the line "Mercedes Benz" buses for ONATRATE(Organizacion Nacional de Transporte Terrestre) back then. We had major investment into new schools all over the nation since 1982 to 1986. We had major investment into Hospitals in 1986 to 1990. Ask what happened>>>>>>>
Santo Domingo is growing by the minute and if it fails to prepare for the near future, traffic jams will be the only thing that will stop the City cold.
In the DR we should abolish public schools and allow privately run schools get vouchers to accept non-cash students from the gov. Let the taxes pay for it with a VAT just for that on specific items/transactions.
The gov should never be involved in the education process of its citizens but only as a guarantor...
Same goes for the health coverage in Hospitals; we should privatize all of them into the private sector and negotiate a best state paid coverage for the unemployed or poor.
Mass transportation should work under a 50/50 partnership of private and state funding. All students should get free transport to school and back, including college, state funded emergency civil servants, etc...
We should abolish the Armed Forces as it is and create a National Security Body that will have a central bureau directive for all services.
We should have the gov. implement a card based payment system for all state employees and any services provided by the state. No checks, etc...
Like a debit card and provide via a public bidding a license to have all medium to small merchants use a terminal for transactions and a Computer based POS system that can be audited by Rentas Internas.
The offset to the winning bidder would be massive in the amount of per transaction charges it will generate and also a windfall for the gov as a co-pay beneficiary of such system.
In other words, it would mean that only banks would use actual paper/metal money.
What do you think?????
BTW: I'm a founding member of a political party of the DR back in the late 80's. It's called the PPD Partido del Pueblo Dominicano. It started as a movement called "Movimiento de la Identidad Dominicana". The colors are yellow and grey (I think) as I made the first flag for it. The emblem is a yellow sun with 8 sunrays departing from the corona atop the grey background and the motto is "No se puede tapar el sol con un dedo".
My political times! LOL!!!
