BRIEFS: Rublic works

Crews wrap up repairs to tumba muerto

Jorge Fernández/La Prensa

patchwork: The first of a three-phase project to rehabilitate Tumba Muerto will be completed later this month.1084661

Bottlenecks along Tumba Muerto are expected to ease later this month as construction crews finish repairs to the most critical stretches of the thoroughfare. This work is just the first in the rehabilitation project’s three phases, meaning traffic relief is only temporary.

Benjamin Colamarco, ministro de Obras Públicas, confirmed that the repairs are being staggered over the next two years to reduce traffic disruptions. The last of those phases will be completed in 2010, he added.

“We would like to strip Tumba Muerto and re-do it completely, but there’s no budget for that,” said Adriano Ferrer, national director of Inspección del Ministerio de Obras Públicas (MOP).

Ferrer explained that crews have been repairing the most deteriorated slabs, those where fractures and movement was detected, along the stretch between Hospital Integrado San Miguel Arcángel and the bridge in front of the Cervecería Nacional.

Next year the 4-lane road will undergo a more thorough maintenance and inspection, with 90 percent of the repair work due for completion by 2010, he said.

The Transcaribe company won the bid for the project, estimated to cost $4.6 million, and includes streets within Bella Vista, Bethania, Pueblo Nuevo and Río Abajo.