Engineer Juan Jose Castilla is the first person to go public on the high risk factors of the relatively new Boulevard del Este in Punta Cana, in an interview in El Diario Libre. The busy boulevard posts speed signs of 100 kph when a more moderate 60 kph seems more appropriate.
Engineer Castilla says that the Boulevard del Este and the Punta Cana roundabout were built by the Brazilian company Odebrecht, but there are major construction deficiencies because standard highway construction regulations were not followed. He says that there are deficiencies in the road’s implementation and design. He said the company had the technical capacity to build the road correctly but in the interview published in Diario Libre he speculates that they may have agreed to violate the regulations when requested to do so.
He warned that the violation of the regulations has reduced road safety on the boulevard.
He said that the main problem is that drivers are traveling at high speed. Many passenger minibuses speed in order to return to pick up other passengers and make more trips, meaning more fares. He also criticized the lack of enforcement of regulations by the Metropolitan Transport Authority, mentioning multiple blowouts of tires due to lack of their regular replacement by public transporters.
He also criticized the fact that there are still concrete light and telecom posts that are barely a meter from the sidewalk on some of the old roads.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/el-boulevard-del-este-es-una-barbaridad-para-la-seguridad-vial-YF2304221
