President Luis Abinader was in La Vega on Saturday, 14 October 2023 to restore traffic over the El Pontón bridge in La Vega province. The government built a new bridge to connect the La Vega and Santiago highway stretches of the Duarte Highway. La Vega is a central point between the north and south.
The restoration of the bridge under repair by the many contractors in charge of improvements on the country’s most important north-south connection is good news for the thousands that travel the important road. The Presidency reported the bridge cost US$467 million.
Public Works Minister Deligne Ascención said that the previous bridge was demolished and a new bridge was built for safety purposes.
“This magnificent work constitutes a model of structural and architectural design that will set precedents for future bridge and elevated construction projects, not only in the country, but even in the area of Central America and the Caribbean,” said the minister.
The bridge is 50.2 meters long and 26.4 meters wide.
The Ministry of Public Works says the new structure is supported on 100 excavated piles, with diameters of 0.80 meters and a depth of 23.8 meters. The Ministry explains that the structure guarantees the useful life and structural safety of the work for decades of continuous operation of heavy load traffic and resistance to seismic events.
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Presidency
16 October 2023