The Abinader administration announced it is going ahead with the construction of the four-lane 32.7 km Amber Highway (Autopista del Ambar), a shorter route to connect Santiago with the North Coast. The construction is budgeted at US$400 million.
The intention is to reduce the ground travel time for international and domestic tourists to get from Santiago to stay in the around 10,000 hotel rooms on the Atlantic Coast. The Atlantic Coast is known as the Amber Coast due to the amber mined in the northern mountain range the new highway would cross.
Public Works Minister Deligne Ascención and the executive director of the Public-Private Partnerships Agency (DGAPP) Sigmund Freud made the announcement on 17 May 2023.
The project initially had been protested by environmentalists. It is not known if this is the same project protested by environmentalists or if changes have been made to cause less damage as it passes through the Cordillera Septentrional, the northern mountain range.
Those who fear it will be another Samana toll road also have objected the construction of the Amber Highway. The Samana toll road was built with a private concession and reports are that the Dominican people have paid its cost several times over.
A tender is underway to choose the builder of the new toll road. Freud of the DGAPP said that the tender winner will be responsible for funding the road. He said the government would not guarantee the company’s borrowing for the construction. He said the government will contribute US$20 million over two years at the start of the project and will contribute in kind located in Punta Bergantín, Puerto Plata.
Public Works Minister Ascención said two tunnels will be built on the proposed highway to connect Santiago and Puerto Plata. One will be 1,834 meters long and a second tunnel of 710 meters. Both are engineering works of high complexity and extraordinary significance.
“The Amber Highway project is based on parameters of time economy, efficiency of cargo and passenger transportation, improvement of road infrastructure, safety for the vehicles that transit it, as well as resistance and resilience to adverse atmospheric or seismic phenomena,” said the Public Works Minister.
There will be eight level crossings and two traffic distributors to facilitate access and communication with other roads and mountain crossings. In addition, as it is a route that crosses the northern mountain range, it will have 18 retaining walls, special drainage and lateral protection cells.
Likewise, Ascención said that the design includes a 2.4 meter wide walkway on both sides and an interior walkway of 1 meter, with a New Jersey wall for protection between the tracks, 1.5 meter ditches in the mountain cutting sections, and metal handrails to enhance road safety.
In the call for partners to construct the highway, the DGAPP includes the maintenance of the 24.7 km Santiago Bypass. The DGAPP states that the project proposes to hire a private partner for the design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of a new toll road between Santiago de los Caballeros and Puerto Plata called Autopista del Ámbar, and for the operation and maintenance of the Autopista Circunvalación Norte de Santiago de los Caballeros.
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Noticias SIN
17 May 2023