The Government continues to take firm steps to strengthen Samaná’s tourist offerings
President Abinader and Minister Collado presented the Malecon Project and inaugurated a new hotel in Santa Barbara.
President Luis Abinader and the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, headed the presentation ceremony of the Malecón Project, which seeks to add value to the tourism offer of this province and have a favorable impact on the community of the head municipality.
The project, which will cost RD$ 449,000,000, aims to improve the storm drainage conditions of the Santa Bárbara Malecón, by increasing the capacity of the conduits that connect the town’s river and the Panchita gully with the ocean.
The town’s river and the Panchita gully are the main bodies that transport the municipality’s rainwater.
Both President Abinader and Minister Collado highlighted the importance of the work, which will have a direct impact on the head municipality and will give a major facelift to Santa Bárbara’s colorful boardwalk.
The president said that the whole process of renovation of the Santa Barbara boardwalk will give a great boost to tourism, which will have a direct impact on the economy of the municipality and the entire province of Samaná.
He revealed that, as of today, in this month of June, the Dominican Republic has received 534,668 visitors, which represents a growth of nine percent more than the same month of 2019 and 51 percent of 2020.
Minister Collado revealed that in the tourism sector alone, the government has made investments of more than one billion pesos in the province of Samaná, in its effort to strengthen the development of the sector throughout the area.
“Today we are here attending to an old claim of this municipality of Santa Barbara and leaving a clear message that we will spare no effort to make this tourist destination reach its highest level,” said Minister Collado.
This intervention will improve drainage conditions by replacing three (3) existing 60″ diameter Rib-Loc pipes with the construction of a multiple culvert of six (6) rectangular reinforced concrete channels 4.30 m wide and 1.65 m high. This will increase the water conveyance capacity from 20.31 m3/s to 107.70 m3/s, 5.3 times the current capacity.
Another important work is the construction of a double-section concrete box culvert, approximately 150 m long, which will connect the Panchita gully from Rosa Duarte Street to the seawall.
Also, 6 more units of pipes will be replaced by concrete culverts, in order to increase the discharge capacity.
In addition to the aforementioned works, more than 500 linear meters of the town’s river and the Panchita gully will be cleaned up, which will consist of removing sludge, solid waste and sediments, reprofiling the sections and filling in some stretches, in order to widen the sections of the riverbed and improve water conduction.
To avoid the impact of solid waste on the coast when it rains, two traps or roughing structures will be built to retain or intercept the waste before it reaches the coast.
A 10,000 m2 dredging of approximately 200 linear meters of coastline will also be carried out to remove sediments accumulated by dragging and improve stormwater discharges to the ocean.