The bridge that started out cheap

[NewsWhore]

The recently inaugurated bridge over the Higuamo River in San Pedro de Macoris is 628 meters long with a suspension span of 390 meters. It is not the longest, or the largest in the world, but the structure must surely set some record for cost. Originally budgeted at RD$60 million in 1999, the final price announced by the government was RD$1.338 billion, 22.3 times the original estimate. According to National Geographic, the type of construction used for the span is among the "most cost-effective", however, this particular bridge is a case of a lack of foresight and planning on the part of the Ministry of Public Works. At the time of the initial studies, the man in charge of the Santo Domingo Metro, Diandino Pena was Minister of Public Works. According to Domingo Abreu Collado, writing for Hoy, the original budget of sixty million pesos was to have been sufficient to complete the entire structure including "a bouquet of flowers for the First Lady." By 2002, the budget was readjusted to RD$590 million during the administration of then Public Works Minister Miguel Vargas Maldonado who announced that the bridge would be completed by August that year. The work on the span was halted, with everything nearly ready. In order to discover what happened to mandate such a huge increase in the costs, Abreu Collado went to the geological engineer Osiris de Leon, the final consultant on the studies for the structure. While studies were conducted on the west bank of the river, nothing was done on the eastern bank. When the studies were ordered for the east bank, after construction had been begun, the builders were able to verify that the eastern bank, where the support tower was to be anchored, was mostly swampy. As a result, the bridge had to be extended four times the original length in order to reach soils sufficiently strong enough to withstand the stress of such a structure. According to Abreu Collado, the increase in the cost of the structure was justified because "it was not possible to go back and start again". Abreu Collado notes that Osiris de Leon is the same person who has been warning about the lack of preliminary studies for the Metro, which is currently under construction under the same person, Diandino Pena, who gave the go ahead for the bridge construction without adequate studies.
Abreu, in his feature today, speculates that it is most likely that the same rationale for continuing will again be heard again, this time with the metro, that the work is too advanced and there can be no turning back.

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