In an announcement on Friday, 10 April 2015, Minister of Tourism Francisco Javier Garcia said that the government could begin the expansion of the Navarrete-Puerto Plata highway this May, as reported in Diario Libre. The newspaper reported that he would be meeting with the Minister of Public Works in the next few weeks to present the plan for the new road.
Garcia was speaking at the opening of the new local campaign, “Smile. You are Puerto Plata.” The campaign is being launched several months before the opening of the Amber Cove cruise ship port in Maimon, south of Puerto Plata city.