‘Shadow toll,’ lack of overpasses stymie Samana highway

Santo Domingo.- The exorbitant “shadow toll” with which the Dominican State has to subsidize the cost for the Santo Domingo-Samana highway has drawn  rebuke from various sectors that demand the canceling of the contract, on which the Govt. owes RD$16.0 billion (US$320.0 million) this year.

Two resolutions from Congress explain to president Danilo Medina the need to revise the contract with the company Autopistas del Nordeste “since in four years of operations, from 2012 to 2015, the Dominican State has paid the cost of construction of the aforementioned road, plus the revenue charged to users of the road.”

The initiatives explain that the construction and concession contract for the Santo Domingo -Samaná highway as part of a tourism development project of the Northeast’s attractions “evidences conditions that must be reviewed in terms of access and overpasses.”

In his initiative, deputy Ricardo Contreras warns that the lack of overpasses at the Monte Plata-Bayaguana highway and the span from Sabana Grande to Gonzalo “have caused numerous accidents and makes it difficult for the motorists on these roads to transit.”