It took 19 years for the government to decide to just do it, and one year for the Medina administration to get it done. The Presidential inauguration ceremony for the US$130 million highway takes place today, Monday 24 February at 4pm. The Consorcio Ecovias built the 26km beltway that enables travelers to avoid crossing through the center of Santiago as in the past, as reported in Diario Libre. An estimated 10,000 vehicles a day are expected to circulate to and from Santiago along the highway, which has four lanes, 34 overpasses and two distributors, said Minister of Public Works Gonzalo Castillo on Saturday, 22 February. The toll will be RD$150 for the complete route but the larger trucks need to pay RD$600.
The route is welcomed by traffic to and from the south of Santiago headed to the northwest, northeastern and northern cities.
The Ministry recalled that the original 33.62km route was conceived in 1995 under the Joaquin Balaguer administration, but the project was abandoned during the subsequent Fernandez and Mejia governments. In 2004, during Fernandez’s second term, the Mera Munoz & Fondeur, Yarull and Onka consortium working on the Canabacoa-Licey, Licey-Tamboril and Tamboril-Jacagua stretches but the bypass was abandoned once again. In 2009, under the Fernandez administration, there was another attempt by a Colombian company, Odinsa, but the construction did not move ahead.
Work would begin again in June 2013, less than a year after the start of the Medina administration, and was concluded in February.
Gonzalez Castillo said that they were also working on the expansion of the Navarrete-Puerto Plata highway, the extension of the Salvador Estrella Sadhala overpass, Juan Pablo Duarte and 27 de Febrero (Central) and Avenida Ecologica.
The government has also promised it will complete Santiago’s Central Park that is to be built on the site of the old city airport.