President Leonel Fernandez inaugurated the new bridge over the Chavon River in a ceremony that was unexpectedly attended by several personalities of note. Besides the President and his wife, guests included baseball player Sammy Sosa; don Alejandro Grullon, the president of the Foundation for the Basilica of La Altagracia and chairman of the Banco Popular Dominicano; Ramon Menendez, the executuve VP of Casa de Campo; Daniel Flaquer, the head of Tropical Tours, and La Altagracia’s Bishop Nicanor Pena, who expressed the feelings of thousands when he thanked the President and told him that he had had to cross the river on foot, often at night. The new bridge, built by Grupo Modesto, cost RD$70 million and will stand in for the one destroyed by the floodwaters associated with Hurricane Jeanne that hit the area last September. The government earlier had put in place a RD$40 million causeway, built by Constructora Pagan, which will now become a pedestrian crossway.