Deaths and corruption mark Dominican Republic icon highway

Santo Domingo.- The constant fatal wrecks and allegations of corruption in its construction and maintenance on Tuesday prompted Dominican Republic’s surveyors, engineers and architects guild (CODIA) to ask the Public Works Ministry to conduct an extensive probe of the highway between Santo Domingo and Samaná (northeast), touted for its breathtaking panoramas.

Despite acknowledging its importance the guild said the highway "has very tight vertical and horizontal curves, including very tall slopes in some spans."

The reasons for this "very narrow geometric design," says the statement attributing CODIA its president, engineer Jose Espinosa, could be because the preservation of the natural reserve of Los Haitises "and the cost to generate a geometric design look more loose ".

He said that this path limits the speed "and often, visibility, drivers should adjust to kilometers per hour set, which is nothing more than the design speed, and if those limits are passed on curves horizontal, the vehicle tends to get out of your lane, because the so-called centripetal force, colliding with another that comes in via counter or getting out of it. "

CODIA’s request comes In a statement issued after a technical committee toured the highway on Tuesday, and noted that the motorists’ constant traffic violations add to the tragedies.

Subsidy reveals economic black hole

In the last four years the government has subsidy of the highway topped RD$7.9 billion -more than it cost- with an alleged "shadow toll" averaging RD$5.4 million daily, to meet the financial goals of the management contractor.