Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader officially confirmed that the long-anticipated Amber Highway infrastructure project will hold its formal groundbreaking ceremony within the next 15 calendar days, with the first tranche of public funding, totaling 5.78 billion Dominican pesos, already disbursed by the national government. The announcement was delivered at the start of Abinader’s public official schedule last Wednesday, following a closed-door bilateral meeting with Sergio Díaz-Granados, Executive President of CAF – the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean. The multilateral financial institution has publicly signaled its intent to provide targeted financial and technical backing for the highway’s full construction lifecycle. Parallel to these administrative milestones, on-the-ground preliminary site work is already underway in the Montellano municipality of Puerto Plata province, confirmed by Minister of the Presidency José Ignacio Paliza. Paliza also disclosed that the project team has secured the first two critical environmental operation licenses, clearing the path for the rollout of two adjacent free trade zones positioned along the dual-direction Puerto Plata to Santiago highway corridor. Stretching 35 kilometers in total, the Amber Highway has been a top regional demand for local communities and industry stakeholders for more than a decade. Upon completion, it will slash travel time between the populous Santiago province and the coastal tourism hub of Puerto Plata from over 60 minutes to roughly 35 minutes, eliminating long-standing bottlenecks for passenger and commercial movement. The transformative infrastructure is projected to act as a core growth catalyst for the entire Dominican Northern region, cutting logistics costs for freight transport, unlocking underdeveloped coastal tourism assets, and creating a far more attractive value proposition for domestic and foreign direct investment. The RD Vial Trust formally awarded the full design-build-operate contract for the 28.8 billion Dominican peso project to Amber Highway Consortium SRL, a local joint venture made up of leading Dominican construction firms Magna, Rizek Constructora, Ingeniería Estrella, and Constructora Mar. This story is part of DominicanScope’s ongoing coverage of local Dominican Republic economic and infrastructure development updates.