Ministry of Public Works carries out four projects for US$340mn with financing from the IDB

This is an automated translation of the original release published in Spanish.

From the Presidency of the Dominican Republic.

Santo Domingo.- Four fundamental projects, which are called to contribute to national and regional development, are the responsibility of the Project Execution Unit of the Ministry of Public Works and Communications: sustainable agroforestry, connectivity with local roads at the rural level; the Manzanillo dock; the road improvement project, and the maintenance and rehabilitation project of more than 300 bridges throughout the country.

Cristian Borrero, director of the Execution Unit, explained that together these projects total US$340mn (more than 19bn pesos), and that all of them have in particular to contribute to the increase in agriculture and exports, encourage interprovincial dynamics and contribute to a more effective cargo transportation system at the national level.

“We are signing what are the progress of a maintenance group for local roads, both for the periodic phase and the routine phase. We have already launched what the process is. Last December we celebrated the ceremony of delivering the resources and progress of a total of 553 kilometers of local roads nationwide for maintenance for two years to a total of 34 contractors, as instructed by President Luis Abinader and the Minister of Works Public, Deligne Ascención," he said.

The road improvement project, with an amount of US$140mn, is focused on productive areas, both in maintenance, rehabilitation and construction of roads nationwide.

He said that the sustainable agroforestry project, initiated in a previous administration, is focused on six provinces in the Southern region: Barahona, Elías Piña, San Juan, Azua, Bahoruco, and Independencia.

“It is a very innovative project, through which the MOPC is in charge of rehabilitating the roads that connect with the productive farms in each of these provinces, while Utepda (Technical Unit Executing Agroforestry Development Projects) is in charge of making the interparcel roads.”

Through the Project Execution Unit, loans and non-refundable donations or cooperation are obtained from the IDB and the latter must be requested in advance.

Borrero said that in the first three months of the current administration it was possible to save 100mn pesos after carefully reviewing the budgets of each of those paths to intervene.

“With these savings, we were able to launch a routine periodic maintenance program for microentrepreneurs,” he stated. Also, it served to maintain 114 kilometers of local roads, divided into two phases: periodic maintenance and routine pruning and cleaning of ditches.

The stipulated investment in the loan was US$50mn for around 231 kilometers of local roads to be rehabilitated, of which there were 114 that were extra for maintenance.

Manzanillo Pier

Borrero pointed out that the start of construction of the Manzanillo dock is scheduled for early this year. “This work involves a medium-long bidding process; They are works that are not typical and we had to do them through Fidic contracts (International Federation of Consultants), which are being done for the first time in the country, which is a regulation that allows us to go step by step, so that both parties are not harmed.”

The Manzanillo dock will be integrated with the connection of the Navarrete-Montecristi highway (90 kilometers), which is under construction and is scheduled to be inaugurated next February.

He announced that of the five companies chosen, three submitted offers and that there is already a successful bidder to begin construction, the firm Soletanche Bachy, which emerged as the winner after the process and evaluations of offers. It is a Colombian company supported by a Dominican company.

Road infrastructure

He referred to a loan of US$140mn destined for the Road Infrastructure Improvement Program, which includes rehabilitation and maintenance of local roads in all provinces. In addition, reconstruction of roads, regarding which “right now we are focused on Barahona and Monte Plata.”

He said that in Barahona work is being done on the Enriquillo-Polo-Cabral and Barahona-Enriquillo and Enriquillo-Pedernales highways, which is strategic connectivity.

In any case, the loan does not stop there. There are 300 kilometers of rehabilitation of local roads, interconnection roads between provinces (that includes paving).

The provinces of San José de Ocoa, Hato Mayor, El Seibo, Espaillat and Monte Plata, with large agricultural production, have already been evaluated, which began through cooperation.

Bridge rehabilitation

He explained that this is a project that is in the planning phase, and an inventory has already been made through the Bridge Maintenance Directorate. With this inventory, cutting-edge technology could be used.

“This evaluation made it possible to identify around 300 totally critical bridges nationwide and the loan is now going to the IDB Board of Directors. It has pre-approval and we are in the process of entering into negotiations with the Bank in order to approve the Board of Directors. From there it would go to the approval phase in the National Congress and then the bidding phase,” he stated.

He announced that the start of bridge interventions is stipulated for August of this year, “because these infrastructures really deserve it, since maintenance was lost here for many years.”