In an announcement made yesterday, Monday 21 September 2015, the Dominican Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) disclosed that the collapse of the Hotel Frances on 2 May 2015 was a direct consequence of the excavations being carried out as part of the Program for the Promotion of Tourism in the Colonial City of Santo Domingo, under the Ministry of Tourism. The program includes a chapter on “recovery of priority streets within the Colonial City Phase 1b.”
In the study into the collapse of the hotel Icomos established that the roadworks did not take into account the archaeological and historical review of the building and part of the colonial aqueduct was destroyed by the excavations in the street, despite the great efforts made by the authorities in charge to meet the rulings for historic areas that would have made the supervision of the works possible.
Icomos says that this negative experience should serve to correct the future interventions of the Colonial City of Santo Domingo in the interest of ensuring the preservation of the historic memory of the Dominican people.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/ciudad/icomos-derrumbe-de-hotel-frances-fue-una-consecuencia-de-las-excavaciones-DY1320775