In it National District there are around 61 holes or excavations for buildings of buildingsmost without protection for drivers and pedestrians as the rules dictate regulations of the authorities and Law 63-17 on Mobility, Land Transportation, Transit and Road safety of the Dominican Republic.
Some holes have been abandoned for years and protected on the edge only with aluzinc plates that do not allow the citizens see the danger they are exposed to when traveling nearby.
Some of the abandoned They are located on: John F. Kennedy Avenue on the corner of Lope de Vega, Máximo Gómez with John F. Kennedy and another, but which is now used for parking, located on 27 de Febrero Avenue, next to the Ministry of Industry building. and Commerce.
Others already have buildings in processsuch as the one on 27 de Febrero Avenue almost on the corner of Juan XXIII, Winston Churchill almost on the corner of Gustavo Mejía Ricart, Francisco Carías Lavandier Street almost on the corner of Winston Churchill and Roberto Pastoriza on the corner of José Tapia Brea, where two people recently died when the vehicle they were in fell. They were displaced to the excavation after being hit by a car.
Although he Ministry of Housing (Mived) has a regulation for the buildingsin the case of the excavationsthere are few construction companies that comply with them in what concerns the internal and external safety of construction workers.
“When the building foresees buildings buried or excavations deep, this protection It must resist blows due to impact to reduce the danger in the event of accidents, in accordance with the provisions of the General Construction Specifications and other applicable standards and regulations,” it says.
All buildings visited only two had protection with walls New Jersey: a building that stands on 27 de Febrero, almost on the corner of Juan XXIII Street and on Winston Churchill, almost on the corner of Gustavo Mejía Ricart. The others only aluzinc.
He Technical Regulations R 0-21, of the Mived in its point 2.3.2.6 establishes: “No work will begin for which the authorization has not previously been obtained. license of construction. However, when it comes only to the excavations for foundations, equipment installations for constructionprovisional booths to store materials or tools for carrying out the works, the Directorate of Processing, Appraisal and Licensing may grant provisional authorization for the execution of the aforementioned works.
Structural verticality in urban areas, such as the case of Central Polygonmotivates builders to occupy the most of your landin some cases they appropriate public spaces such as sidewalks and in others they violate the boundaries, endangering the lives of citizens already buildings neighbors, which has led to litigation in the Municipal Court.
The entities that have to do with the buildings are the Ministry of Housingthe Mayor’s Offices, which grant the use of land and the Ministry of the Environment, but the National Institute of Traffic Safety and Land Transportation (Intrant) also intervenes, which must be in charge of street signage and speed bumps in necessary cases. .
The expert
Juan José Castilla Martín is an expert engineer in Road safety with vast experience in several countries and says that, although the authorities are obliged to protect the citizen, the drivers They must also respect traffic regulations as established by Law 63-17 on road preferences and signage, among others.
Understand that in all construction where are they made excavations for underground it must be concreted with walls of 20 or more centimeters to protect not only the buildings neighbors, but also to road users and the construction workers themselves.
That can withstand impacts
He is in favor of the placement of structures on the surface that are able to withstand the impact of any vehicle to travel through the place at a certain speed, “The problem here (in the country) is that the excavation “They do it right up to the edge of the sidewalk, that is the very serious problem.”
In addition, it is recommended to place, after the aluzinc sheet, a railing profile that is resistant to the impact of any vehicle. “What seems alarming to me is the corruptionand I say it loudly with capital letters, the corruption that exists in all institutions that are related to the topics of construction of housing,” indicated the road expert.
