Despite the apparent destruction of the commercial worth of Santo Domingo’s former leading commercial avenue, the 27 de Febrero, the Fernandez government wants to do a repeat in Los Alcarrizos, a low income suburb.
El Caribe newspaper reports today that a new overpass is likely to eliminate the vibrant businesses that are located there, in favor of facilitating vehicular traffic.
The newspaper reports that the members of the Municipal Board only found out that the construction would be carried out when they observed the workers starting the excavations. “If the authorities of the Ministry of Public Works had approached us, we would have told them that before the overpass, what Alcarrizos needs is streets, sidewalks and improvements to the gullies,” Jose Suero, secretary general of the municipality told El Caribe.
The megawork has a price tag of RD$442 million and calls for adding two more lanes to each side of the Duarte highway for the construction of the overpass. The government has plans to expropriate some 60 properties to give way to the overpass.
Suero says, “To evict the merchants from the entrance of Los Alcarrizos will be a hard blow, because this is one of the most active commercial areas of the municipality,” he said.
The government assigned the work without a tender to Industrias Metalicas, S.A. The company has begun the excavations, while it awaits for the government to expropriate commercial properties in the vicinity.