The government has reached an agreement with the Dominicana Vias Concesionadas (Dovicon), the Colombian company that was awarded a 30-year concession contract to administer the Duarte Highway to Puerto Plata and the 6 November Highway to the southwest. The financial implications will result in the government paying the company US$135 million. The Dovicon contract, signed during the last Leonel Fernandez administration, gave the company the authority to install more toll plazas on the two highways in exchange for repairing the roadways and extending the highway all the way to Puerto Plata. The company was supposed to implement the Viadom programs and would have the right to tolls worth over US$3.6 billion over the life of the contract. It was to invest, according to Listin Diario, some US$400 million.
When the contract was reviewed in Congress, the media pointed out similarities to the Codaacsa contract for the Las Americas highway that the government eventually rescinded but had to pay a hefty penalty as a result. Regardless, the PLD-majority legislators passed the contract. Taxpayers in the DR are also paying a high price for the Samana toll highway, also approved by the PLD-majority legislators and now being criticized for its high cost by Medina administration officials.