Photos of the Santo Domingo-Samana highway

This past weekend we decided to try out the new highway to Samana and were extremely impressed. After last month's cries of "No way will it be ready!", we were expecting some difficult patches, but boy, they must have done some serious work in the past few weeks! The whole road from south to north was paved, with lines marked and catseyes, road signage and barriers in place.

There was one small detour where a bridge (over the River Yuna???) was still being built, but even the detour route had recently been paved and signposted. It was very easy driving, unlike anywhere else in the country, and those who like to stretch their car's legs would be very pleased. On the way up it took 1hr 10mins from Autopista Las Americas to the Nagua-Sanchez road, and on the way back, despite heavy rains and slow traffic all the way, it still only took 2 and half hours from Las Terrenas all the way to central Santo Domingo.

There was a call for photos, so I took advantage of my passenger seat position to snap a few.

This was taken just after passing the first toll plaza. Most of the first section is very straight.



The second toll plaza and list of tariffs.




Going through a palm plantation.



Going further north, much of the road has been cut through the rock.



There were still a few places where they were working on laying the tarmac on the sides of the road, but it didn't impede traffic.

Part 2

After entering Los Haitises National Park, the road became more winding. It seemed that most of the road had been hewn from the rocks, leaving impressive cliff faces towering either side.



The tariffs at the third toll plaza.



Where the detour began.



The bridge under construction.

Rock falls

Thanks for the positive comments!

Bob, I had exactly the same thought. It was raining quite heavily on the way back and in some places small rocks had fallen down onto the sides of the road. There are some places that I am sure they will have to shore up in the not too distant future.

I'm not too good with distances, but there were several stretches of straight road that continued as far as the eye could see, so a good few kilometers.

One thing I forgot to mention was that they don't accept any banknotes higher than 200 pesos, and they seemed to be begging customers for their 5 pesos and 10 pesos, so make sure you take along plenty of small change to pay at each of the three toll plazas. Also make sure you have all the gas/things you might want on the journey. There are some villages and towns nearby you can divert to, but along the road itself there are no businesses, formal or informal, as yet. There were, however, several private patrol cars stopping to help cars with problems, and we saw an ambulance sat waiting at the northern entrance to the road.