In a high-stakes infrastructure announcement made during a Wednesday meeting in Madrid, Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader confirmed that construction on the decades-overdue Amber Highway will officially kick off within 15 calendar days, backed by an upfront government budget commitment of RD$5.78 billion. The announcement followed closed-door talks between Abinader and Sergio Díaz-Granados, Executive President of the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), where the regional multilateral lender formally signaled its intent to provide targeted financial and technical support for the landmark northern transport corridor.
Presidency Minister José Ignacio Paliza later verified that pre-construction groundwork is already underway in the Montellano municipality of Puerto Plata province, with two core environmental operating permits already secured for the segments of the route that link the industrial hub of Santiago de los Caballeros to the coastal tourism hotspot of Puerto Plata. Stretching roughly 35 kilometers, the new grade-separated highway is projected to cut current cross-regional travel times from 60+ minutes down to just 35 minutes, unlocking tangible gains for freight logistics, small business trade flows, northern tourism accessibility, and foreign direct investment attractiveness across the Dominican Republic’s underconnected northern corridor.
The RD$28.8 billion total project contract was awarded by the RD Vial Trust to the Autopista del Ámbar Consortium, a local joint venture made up of construction firms Magna, Rizek Constructora, Ingeniería Estrella, and Constructora Mar. For CAF, the planned partnership builds on more than 20 years of continuous collaboration with the Dominican Republic: the nation first joined the multilateral development bank in 2004, earned full membership status in 2021, and CAF inaugurated its official Santo Domingo regional office earlier in 2025 to expand support for national priority projects spanning infrastructure, sustainable tourism, renewable energy, and public education.