NAGUA, Dominican Republic.- Work is underway on the Boulevard Turistico del Atlantico, a $168 million highway project that will loop around the Samana Peninsula.
The Inter American Development Bank B is lending up to $44.8 million without a sovereign guarantee to the Boulevard Turístico del Atlántico project, which will also have joint support from other bilateral and multilateral institutions. Total financing will reach some $149 million.
The project includes the concession for a 123-kilometer toll road with two components: rehabilitation of 99 kilometers of existing highway that connects Nagua, Sánchez, Samaná, El Limón and Las Terrenas, and construction of a new 24-kilometer segment that will connect Las Terrenas and Majagual on the Samaná peninsula.
Work is being conducted around the clock on the first, 34-kilometer section from Nagua to Sanchez, paving 2 kilometers weekly. Another section expected to be finished by year end is the bypass at Las Terrenas, from El Portillo Airport to the Sanchez highway crossing.
Public Works and the construction company are also blasting of some of the rock promontories with dynamite, as the extracted material is then used on the La Majagua-Playa Cozón-Las Terrenas seaside roadway.
In other sections heavy equipment, workers and technicians design and expand banks, and shore up the existing road base. So far more than 8 kilometers of highway at Nagua’s exit has been paved.
In that section more 3,000 meters of asphalt have been placed as base material, then a final 2 inch heated asphalt layer will be applied.

From: DominicanToday.com and GovMonitor.com