Design and Construction Supervision (Lots 1,2,5 and 10) Duarte Highway Widening
Consultoría, Ingeniería y Diseños, S.A, served as technical consultants and construction supervisors for the Widening of the Duarte Highway (RD-1) from Santo Domingo to Santiago.
The Duarte Highway was originally constructed in the 1960s as a two lane route in the north-south direction to link the two principal cities of the Dominican Republic: Santo Domingo, the capital, and Santiago de los Caballeros. In the mid-80s, average traffic volume had already doubled its capacity, causing high rates of accidents and serious congestion.
In 1994, the Dominican Republicıs Government ordered the Widening of the Duarte Highway from Santo Domingo to Santiago to create a top quality 4 to 6 lanes highway. In this project, COINDISA developed the complete highway design, approximately 140 km., supervision of the widening of all existing bridges, 21 in total, and the supervision of the construction of the southern 80 km. of roadwork near Santo Domingo.
COINDISA also designed seven interchanges of the Duarte Highway with other important arteries, among which can be named those in the town of Villa Altagracia, and with the roads to San Francisco de Macorís and Constanza.
Hilly terrain in many segments of the highway, required great cuts and fills, with depths of up to 40m, cuts being extensively terraced, and hundreds of culverts, some up to 200m long, making this the largest earth-moving project in the western hemisphere. To mitigate the environmental impact of such a vast project, broad use of nickel slag was made, resulting from a nearby nickel mine, as material for the sub base, which obviated the need to dredge rivers for gravel.
COINDISA, a Dominican firm that since its establishment has participated in the countryıs most important projects, has in its directive personnel, professionals with advanced degrees and considerable experience in Geotechnical, Structural and Transportation Engineering.
