Santo Domingo.- The Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC) reported this Wednesday that the work of placing new expansion joints in the two lanes of the southern part of the Juan Pablo Duarte Bridgea structure that is 647 meters long by 33.5 meters wide.
The Deputy Minister of Road Infrastructure of the MOPC, Mélito Santana Rincón, who on Wednesday made an inspection visit to the works, explained that “these works, which began approximately three weeks ago, are advancing at a fairly good pace.”
The official announced that if the pace of the work continues, it could be completed before the 60 days scheduled for carrying out the repair of the bridge.
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I emphasize that, thanks to the collaboration of the users and the dedication of the technicians, the traffic has been more fluid than expected, when structures like these are involved in such high-dimensional works.
The Duarte bridge connects the National District with the Santo Domingo Este municipality in a west-east direction.
Since last July 15, its structure has been undergoing a change of joints, resurfacing of the asphalt layer, placement of new asphalt, horizontal and vertical signage, as well as the maintenance of its railings.
Santana Rincón explained that approximately 70% of the works have been completed with regard to the rails in the southern part, in many cases with the joints permanently in place, while in some places they are cleaning to proceed with the placement of the joints that are still missing.
“It is a process that has cost a bit of work now, perhaps more in the second phase, since they did not know what was really underneath, they have found a not very satisfactory job to work in the previous meetings, so it has been It took a little longer, but we hope that with the proposed time we would be ready, there we have the technicians, the plant engineers, to explain this technical process to us,” he said.
He stated that the placement of new joints has an approximate cost of 62 million pesos, but that with the asphalting, now the inclusion of paint and railings, “in the end it would come out approximately between 90 and 100 million pesos.”
While the engineer Stanley Green, from the contracting firm Proyectos Industriales, SA (Pinsa), explained that “in reality on this side (lanes on the southern part) we have taken a little longer, but we are going with time, one knows that We were going to find below with the setbacks, but thank God we are going with the program”.
He gave assurances that the other part (lanes on the north side) “we are going to do it a little faster and more efficiently, because we already have the experience of the first part, that we already know where we have to put each piece. We understand that we are going according to the plan and that we are going to finish the work as established, ”he advanced.
The works are carried out in coordination with the National Institute of Land Traffic (Intrant), General Directorate of Traffic Safety and Land Transport (Digessett), and the mayors of the National District and the municipality of Santo Domingo Este.
