Ministry of Public Works is dealing with land invasions on the sides of the main highways in the Dominican Republic. As of late, the authorities have been demolishing illegal constructions that violate the national road law.
The Road Law Control Unit (Codevial), attached to the Military and Police Commission (Comipol) of the Ministry of Defense, reported that from March 2022 to February 2023, 503 works that violated the right of way have been paralyzed, notified, dismantled or demolished.
The director of the state entity’s Military and Police Commission, General Rafael Vásquez Espínola says this includes 189 constructions that were paralyzed for non-compliance with the institution’s regulations in Public Works Law 1474-38, that dates back to 1938.
Law 1474-38 regulates construction on trunk highways, sets its margins and establishes that the right of way is the space reserved for future expansions, construction of marginal roads or any type of intervention that warrants it.
Rules indicate that a margin of 20, 30 and 40 meters must be left on both sides of the roads or highways, depending on whether they are trunk roads, secondary roads or country roads.
The Ministry of Public Work for decades has been lax in applying the law in regards to illegal road side constructions.
The general said the evictions are carried out by the Attorney General Office, the police and other instances that use public force with other processes.
Improvised human settlements affect the usefulness of new highways such as the Santo Domingo bypass, the Northeast highway and the East highway.
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El Dia
Ministry of Defense
8 March 2023