博客

On Friday, Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader is set to undertake a full day of official engagements across Puerto Plata province, centered on a high-profile inspection of the transformative Punta Bergantín Tourist Project, a cornerstone initiative designed to reshape the region’s economic and tourism trajectory.

Five months after the original bridge over the Camú River collapsed, cutting off a critical transport artery connecting the Dominican Republic’s Santiago and Puerto Plata provinces, President Luis Abinader formally opened a replacement span in Puerto Plata on Friday. The early completion of the project restores full traffic access to the Gregorio Luperón Tourist Highway, a foundational route that underpins daily mobility, commercial exchange, productive activity, and tourism across the country’s Northern region.

Public Works and Communications Minister Eduardo Estrella emphasized the government’s urgent, coordinated response to the April 12 bridge collapse, which had severed one of the Northern corridor’s busiest road links. Work on the replacement structure launched immediately following the incident, with construction crews mobilized on-site by April 18, marking five full months of construction by the inauguration date.

“This corridor could not remain disconnected,” Estrella noted, crediting the rapid delivery of the project to collaborative efforts between the private construction firm, MOPC engineering and project management teams, and local community stakeholders, who all aligned to deliver the infrastructure in an accelerated timeline.

### A Lifeline for Northern Dominican Communities
The newly completed bridge directly addresses months of disruption that impacted local residents, commuting workers, agricultural producers, commercial vendors, and tourist visitors who relied on the interprovincial route. Its reopening revives an essential connection for daily personal travel, the movement of goods and services, and access to regional markets and popular coastal tourist destinations.

The span directly connects and benefits five local communities — Los Ciruelos, Montellano, Camú, Gran Parada, and Yásica — alongside all through travelers moving between the provinces of Puerto Plata and Santiago.

As a complementary component of the core bridge project, MOPC also completed a comprehensive river intervention, rechanneling and stabilizing 600 meters of the Camú River’s course. The work widened the river’s active flow width, improved water circulation during heavy rain events, and reduces long-term flood risk for adjacent communities and the new bridge infrastructure.

Engineering specifications for the new crossing place the bridge at 112.30 meters long and 11.20 meters wide, with two paved vehicle traffic lanes and two dedicated pedestrian sidewalks. The structure is built with 18 prefabricated post-tensioned concrete beams (the longest of which measure 45 meters) and 48 reinforced concrete piles driven up to 24 meters deep into the riverbed for long-term structural stability.

### Upcoming Infrastructure Investment to Expand Regional Connectivity
Estrella used Friday’s inauguration to outline the government’s ongoing infrastructure expansion plans across Puerto Plata, headlined by the new Amber Highway project that will create a second high-capacity link between Puerto Plata and Santiago. The new corridor is designed to further strengthen interprovincial connectivity, drive commercial growth, and boost productive and tourism activity across the entire Northern region.

He confirmed that contractors have received finalized project progress briefings, and pre-construction work is already underway across multiple work fronts. Expropriation surveys, geotechnical soil testing, and final detailed design work are moving forward to clear the way for full construction launch.

The minister also highlighted the breadth of ongoing government investment across Puerto Plata, spanning new bridge construction, road rehabilitation, and street upgrades for communities across the province. “This is what investment looks like, this is what development looks like, this is what opportunity looks like, this is what connectivity looks like — this is what governing for people looks like,” he said.

Across the province, multiple additional bridge projects are currently under construction, and contracts for eight more new bridge structures are in the process of being awarded. Major road upgrades including the El Estrecho-Ímbert Highway and Barrabás Highway are also progressing on schedule.

The opening of the Camú River bridge marks a key milestone in the government’s efforts to rebuild critical regional infrastructure, reconnecting isolated communities and restoring the flow of trade, production, and tourism between Santiago and Puerto Plata.

Puerto Plata Senator Ginette Bournigal expressed enthusiastic praise for the accelerated construction timeline, emphasizing that the early delivery would not have been possible without President Abinader’s direct commitment and support. Monsignor Julio César Corniel, bishop of the Puerto Plata diocese, led a blessing ceremony for the completed infrastructure ahead of the inauguration.

President Abinader was joined at the inauguration ceremony by a host of senior government and local authorities, including Presidency Minister José Ignacio Paliza, Puerto Plata Provincial Governor Claritza Rochette, Banco de Reservas President Leonardo Aguilera, IDAC Director Igor Rodríguez, and multiple national deputies representing the region.

A controversial announcement of sharp fuel price increases in the Dominican Republic has triggered widespread public anger and organized pushback, with critics accusing the administration of placing an unfair economic burden on already struggling working families. The government’s Ministry of Industry, Commerce and MSMEs (MICM) unveiled the new price adjustments for the week of September 19–25, which include a 9 Dominican peso (RD) increase per gallon for premium gasoline and premium diesel, bringing their new prices to RD$350.10 and RD$302.10 respectively. Regular grades of gasoline and diesel saw a 5 peso per gallon increase, now retailing at RD$315.50 and RD$267.80. Additional hikes were applied to other fuel products: aviation fuel rose by RD$27.43 to RD$345.40 per gallon, kerosene jumped by RD$29.30 to RD$388.30, fuel oil #6 increased RD$5.53 to RD$178.38, and 1% fuel oil rose by RD$11.08 to RD$214.47. Only Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) was spared from a price hike, a detail critics have acknowledged but dismissed as insufficient to offset broader harm.

Public backlash was immediate and widespread across all segments of Dominican society. Commenter Wesly Fermin was one of many residents who voiced outrage on local outlet Listín Diario’s Instagram page, arguing that “when oil prices fall, domestic fuel prices stay the same, but when oil goes up, consumers end up footing the entire bill.” Fermin warned that the 9 peso jump for premium fuel is far from a trivial change, noting that higher fuel costs ripple through every sector of the economy, driving up transportation fares, grocery prices, and the cost of nearly all consumer goods. “At the end of the day, it’s always the average citizen that ends up paying for the government’s bad decisions,” he said. That frustration was echoed in public spaces across the country: from office hallways to subway platforms, from bus routes to neighborhood corner stores, residents shared criticism and anxiety over how the price hikes would erode their already strained quality of life.

Four major civil society and community organizations – the Don Bosco Neighborhood Organizations Coordinator (Codonbosco), the Center for Education for Peace, Tolerance and Development (Cepatode), the Alexis Rafael Peña Institute for Alternative Conflict Resolution (Ircap), and the Association of Housewives Committees of the National District and Santo Domingo (Acadisando) – have issued a categorical rejection of the price increase. The groups point out that the government has collected fuel taxes for six years without implementing comparable increases in prior periods, and argue that moving forward with steep hikes now ignores the fact that basic commodity prices have already been rising for Dominican households. They warned that the fuel price increase will push up costs for a broad swath of working people, including housewives, commercial truckers, small business owners, farmers, and local producers. The organizations estimate that as many as four million Dominican residents will see their basic food costs rise as a result, and criticized President Luis Abinader for failing to introduce a comprehensive plan to mitigate the coming economic crisis. “Dominican households can no longer bear the burden of rising prices and growing food insecurity,” the groups said in a joint statement, warning that continued price hikes on fuel could push the country toward widespread unrest in the impoverished neighborhoods of the National District and Santo Domingo province, where deepening poverty is already squeezing household finances. “If the government keeps moving in this direction, we are heading toward a social precipice,” they added.

Transportation sector leaders have also added their voices to the criticism, while calling for a return to collaborative policy making. Williams Pérez Figuereo, president of the National Confederation of Unified Transporters (CNTU), acknowledged that the government faced significant political pressure to avoid raising fuel prices in the current climate. But he emphasized that even so, the new price increases will impose severe hardship on the general public. To address the ongoing conflict over fuel pricing, Pérez Figuereo called on the Abinader administration to reinstate Decree 257-95, a policy that established a permanent public-private dialogue forum for reaching consensus on fuel pricing decisions before adjustments are announced.