Hoy newspaper’s Coctelera column speculates on the thoroughness of ground studies carried out prior to the building of the Isabela Airport in El Higuero, north of Santo Domingo. The newspaper page two columnist says that one of the arguments used by the government to build the new airport was that the Herrera airport’s landing strip could not be expanded. They announced the El Higuero airport would have a landing strip of 7,500 feet. The newspaper says that off-the-record sources indicate that it will only be 5,500 feet because builders have met with the obstacle of a small river that impedes the expansion. The note says that trying to reach the 7,500 feet the contractors have been using fill in from the Falconbridge ferronickel mine in Bonao. Furthermore, the columnist says his sources tell him that even with all the work and money in the world, there is no way the airport will be finished in three months as the government has said. The columnist says it will more likely be completed in ten months. The El Higuero airport will replace the Herrera airport, which primarily serves domestic traffic.
