The Dominican government announced that the Spanish firm Ferrovial-Agroman will be responsible for the completion of the Arroyo Barril, Samana International Airport. Construction works have been paralyzed for 14 months after the new government authorities stopped work to re-evaluate the project and its costs. The director of the Oficina de Ingenieros Supervisores de Obras del Estado, Euclides Sanchez, handed a check for RD$5 million to complete the first phase of the airport, to the following engineers: Santiago Bergareche Busquet, president of the board of directors of Agroman, Manuel Alvarez Asencio, director for Central America and the Caribbean, and Rafael Puig Pey, general counsellor of Ferrovial. Agroman will require a total of RD$42 million to enable small airplanes carrying up to 40 passengers to land by April 1998 at the airport. At that point construction will continue in order to habilitate the airport for wide body jets. The government rescinded the contract to the engineering firm of Sandoval Rodriguez and Asociados, after determining the construction works had been overpriced. It was reported that the Spanish government organization, Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea, that operates 40 airports in Spain, is counselling the constructors.
