Latest on Santo Domingo - Samana

[Squat]

646RD$... That makes me wonder how much will coast a seat in the (potential) Caribe Tours bus...

[aegap]

Originally Posted by Chirimoya

This article Las concesiones de carreteras. La vía Santo Domingo-Samaná - DiarioLibre.com says that the toll for a round trip will be RD$646.

Sounds a little steep...

Except when you compare it to the gas money, time, vehicle wear and tear, etc, saved. It than starts sounding like a bargain price.

[aegap]

Originally Posted by Squat

646RD$... That makes me wonder how much will coast a seat in the (potential) Caribe Tours bus...

Caribe Tours and commercial user will probably be charged a higher toll. But despite that, they'll actually SAVE money. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it.

How much does the government charge on a round trip using the Duarte Highway?

[rubio_higuey]

The RD$600+ is not a RT toll, it's OW toll. In the article it states it's RD$3.05 per km, it's got about 200 kms, so it's 646 pesos One Way toll.

[swake]

So how far are we now?? Can you or can you not take the highway up to Rincón de Molinillos coming from SDQ? I need to get to Nagua coming from Higuey next week. Don't mind the ultimate stretch Rincon to Nagua but SDQ to R de Molinillos is critical. Is it asphalted by now?

[GALK]

You can take the highway the hole length, but you may be stopped by ongoing construction works. I came back from Samana last sunday and there were no works executed, so we could pass without any stop.
Only about 25 km have asphalt, except the open 10 km, thereof some part only partly and some portions only have the first layer of asphalt.
As works go on this may change daily.
About 70 km are without asphalt and partly still levelling works are ongoing.
Lot of dust as you can imagine.
About 5 or 6 bridges are under construction and you have to use small unpaved raods, partly through ricefields, to pass by.
We had a flat tyre on one of our cars (nearly new and in good condition), and there was little traffic.
All in all, I only recommend to go with 4WD cars, not alone, only in daylight and in good weather conditions otherwise you have lot of mud.

Good luck

[GALK]

This 106 km took us little less than 2 hours without the change of the tyre..

[jaguarbob]

The regular guagua from sd to el limon has been using this road for a few weeks,and drive time is about 1/12 hours less.
bob

[rubio_higuey]

Update 1/APR/2007 (no april fools' joke)

The highway is paved Molinillos - Batey Verde / Gonzalo of Sabana Grande de Boya. From there, you have to take a detour via SGB - Monte Plata - Villa Mella.

You have to exit at batey Verde (not marked) or at Gonzalo, that part is easy to find because it is the first bridge udner construction with side road, after the paved area.

NO UNATHORIZED TRAFFIC allowed on construction area south of SGB (km49) (about 10 kms further down) and another, more uncomfortable detour has to be taken, if you miss Gonzalo exit.

This is a new rule (no traffic), they have a guatchiman posted on both sides, I wos told it's because there was an accident last week where a huge truck messed up something and Colombian owners no longer permit any traffic on parts with land dirt, especially crossing the mountain pass south of SGB east of Monte Plata.

I was told the road should be inaugurated on May 4 and construction is heavy under way.

I saw lots of guaguas on the road Monte Plata - Villa Mella coming from Samana.

Oh... btw don't think of this going to be Autopista Duarte or Autopista del Este, this will be a 2-lane highway, though quite comfortable and wide lanes. But 2 lanes anyway.