Santo Domingo.- With barely a month to be repaired, several of the joints of the duarte bridge They already show deterioration, which constitutes a construction defect by the contractor firm Proyectos Industriales (PINSA).
The work, which had an investment of around 60 million pesos, according to the Ministry of Public Works (MOPC), was estimated to have a useful life of 20 years.
The joints that have holes in the concrete are those on the east side of the Duarte bridge that connects the National District with the neighboring municipality of Santo Domingo Este in a west-east direction.
In this regard, the MOCP reported this Monday in a statement that Pinsa will proceed to correct the flaws.
He specified that for such purposes, the structure will be completely closed to vehicular traffic next Saturday, December 10, starting at 9:00 p.m. until Sunday until 6:00 p.m.
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The engineer said that the total closure of the bridge will last until 6:00 pm on Sunday, December 11.
“The joints that were placed on the bridge on the east side, which are the ones that present problems, will be removed and will be placed again, but with different climatic conditions, in addition to the fact that the bridge will be closed,” explained Ramón Gómez, President of Pinsa who spoke in the presence of the Vice Minister of Road Maintenance, Mélito Santana.
Gómez, while lamenting the situation, explained that “this happened because the repair of the bridge continued at the time of the storm, due to the need to finish the project.
“The failures are due to the torrential rains, which greatly affected the setting of the concrete,” he said.
He said the bridge was originally supposed to have been closed completely while resurfacing and resurfacing work took place, but only two lanes were closed while resurfacing and repair work was underway.
According to MOPC data, the Junan Pablo Duarte bridge has a daily traffic flow of 35,500 vehicles between 6:00 in the morning and 8:00 at night.
On July 7, Minister Deligne Ascención announced the work to change the expansion joints in the four lanes of the bridge, beginning on the south side, while in a second stage the lanes on the north side were to continue.
At that time it was said that the work would last 60 days, however, the work lasted three months and 18 days, almost double.
On November 2, Public Works delivered the refurbished Duarte bridge, which, in addition to changing the joints, underwent new asphalt, signposting, and maintenance of its railings.
