Santo Domingo – The 2026 Holy Week travel season has cemented its place in Dominican transportation history, after the RD Vial Trust reported a landmark surge in vehicle traffic across all toll roads under its management. From April 1 to April 3 alone, official counts logged 891,601 vehicles passing through toll plazas, marking a dramatic 32.8% jump compared to the same three-day period in 2025. This double-digit growth aligns with a years-long upward trend in domestic mobility across the Dominican Republic’s primary highway network, signaling steadily rising demand for road travel across the country.
Traffic volumes climbed rapidly in the opening 48 hours of the tracking period, setting the tone for the record-breaking weekend. The first day, Wednesday, saw 357,862 vehicles traverse the network, with volumes climbing even higher to a single-day peak of 366,871 vehicles on Thursday. Combined, these two days already pushed the total to 724,733 vehicles, a figure that outpaced the full three-day totals from every previous Holy Week season. On the third day, Good Friday, national policy waived all toll fees for the holiday, drawing an additional 166,868 vehicles and pushing the final total to the unprecedented historic high.
RD Vial Trust director Hostos Rizik Lugo explained that the record-breaking traffic flow was managed smoothly thanks to expanded operational capacity rolled out as part of Operation Awareness for Life 2026, a national safety initiative coordinated by the country’s Emergency Operations Center. To prepare for the seasonal travel boom, authorities deployed more than 3,600 trained personnel across 3,200 kilometers of national highways, supported by hundreds of patrol units, ambulances, tow trucks, and mobile maintenance workshops to respond quickly to incidents and keep traffic moving.
The Paso Rápido electronic toll collection system also emerged as a critical contributor to managing the unprecedented volume, operating across all toll plazas with a 96% operational efficiency rate. The system’s reliable performance cut down on wait times and prevented widespread gridlock, even as traffic volumes far exceeded initial projections. Officials emphasized that the sharp year-over-year increase in traffic is not just a reflection of typical seasonal holiday travel demand. Instead, they noted, it points to a structural, long-term increase in road usage across the country, alongside growing public confidence in the quality and reliability of the Dominican Republic’s national highway infrastructure.