One of the most costly public works ever carried out in this country, the expansion of the Duarte Highway will be inaugurated on 30 April by President Leonel Fernández. The expansion of the 187 kilometer highway that leads from the capital city of Santo Domingo to the North Coast was begun on 11 October 1993, and will have been completed almost five years later. The highway that crisscrosses the most fertile lands of the DR is used by trucks that mobilize 80% of the farming produce consumed in Santo Domingo. The expansion project also included the construction of nine bypasses for through traffic in Santo Domingo, Villa Altagracia, San Francisco de Macorís, La Vega, Moca, Jarabacoa, Constanza, and Bonao. A bypass is pending for construction in Santiago. Some 39 engineering companies from the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Spain, Sweden, and Mexico participated in the construction that is estimated to have cost upwards of RD$5,166 million pesos.
