Dominican Republic Transportation
Figure 4. Transportation System, 1989
The Dominican Republic's relatively advanced
transportation
infrastructure had experienced sustained expansion since
the
1950s. Transportation, along with communications,
accounted for
approximately 6 percent of GDP in 1988, and that share was
growing because of the booming tourist industry. Roads
were the
most common medium of travel. The national road network,
which
totaled more than 17,000 kilometers in 1989, was extensive
by
Caribbean standards. One-quarter of all roads were
highways
(see
fig. 4). Seventy percent of the highways were paved, and
they
received some maintenance. Poor conditions were extremely
common,
and 80 percent of all feeder roads were badly deteriorated
by the
mid-1980s. Moreover, most roadways were narrow and flooded
easily. The Directorate for Highway Maintenance of the
Secretariat of State for Public Works and Communications
provided
poor upkeep services, largely because of an insufficient
budget.
The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank
(IDB)
financed programs in the late 1980s that would upgrade
roads and
develop better maintenance systems. An estimated 60,000
registered freight vehicles and 10,000 unregulated,
inter-urban
jitneys constituted the republic's commercial
transportation
fleet.
The country's 325-kilometer railroad system was one of
the
longest in the Caribbean. The CEA owned 60 percent of the
railroad, which primarily served the sugar industry. Over
half of
all sugarcane traveled from the fields to the mills by
rail.
Central Romana also operated a railroad for its private
sugar
interests. The other owners of railroads included the
stateoperated salt mining and bauxite companies, Dominican
Agrarian
Institute (Instituto Agrario Dominican--IAD) and
Falconbridge.
Falconbridge also operated nearly all of the country's
pipelines,
seventy-four kilometers of which supplied oil to the
Canadian
firm's ferronickel smelting plant in Bonao.
Fifteen seaports were in operation in the late 1980s.
Nine
were engaged in international commerce, while six were
limited to
commerce among Dominican ports; however, only four were
considered major ports. Shipping was the leading form of
international commerce. The country's major seaport was
Haina,
located on the Caribbean coast just west of Santo Domingo.
New
container equipment that it received during the 1980s made
Haina
one of the most modern ports in the Caribbean. As a
consequence,
Haina replaced Santo Domingo and Boca Chica as the
Dominican
Republic's central shipping facility. The government
funded
renovation of the port of Santo Domingo in the late 1980s,
however, converting it into one the region's major berths
for
cruise ships. Most other seaports were specialized as
well: Boca
Chica handled sugar exports; Cabo Rojo and Barahona
shipped
minerals; and Puerto Plata also catered to cruise ships.
The
Dominican Port Authority regulated only the capital's
ports in
the late 1980s, but by law it was given responsibility for
the
eventual administration of all the country's wharves.
Foreign
lines dominated shipping, despite a Dominican law that
required
40 percent of all vessels to fly Dominican flags. Domestic
undercapacity, however, rendered that law unenforceable.
Many
rivers traversed the island, but few were commercially
navigable.
Four international airports accommodated the nation's
growing
numbers of travelers. The two major airports were Las
Américas,
near Santo Domingo, and the newer La Unión, near Puerto
Plata,
both of which handled wide-bodied jets. Las Américas
traditionally received more than two-thirds of all air
passengers
and most air cargo, but La Unión's share of air passengers
grew
steadily after its completion in the 1970s as a result of
the
burgeoning tourist industry on the north coast. A French
construction company renovated the Las Américas airport in
1989,
so that it could more effectively manage the growing
influx of
passengers. The smaller international airports at La
Romana and
Santiago accommodated mainly chartered flights. Fourteen
carriers
scheduled regular flights within the Dominican Republic in
1989.
Four of these carriers also offered direct daily flights
to the
United States. Dominican Airlines (Compañía Dominicana de
Aviación--CDA, also known as Dominicana) was the country's
national airline; traditionally, it had served 35 percent
of all
passengers. The parastatal's heavy financial losses in the
1980s
forced it to cancel many flights, however, which reduced
its
market share. By 1989 the government had decided to sell
49
percent of CDA's stock to a foreign airline in a bid to
bolster
its finances. A local company, Alas del Caribe, flew
domestic
flights.
The Dominican side of Hispaniola also contained an
estimated
120 clandestine airstrips. Many of these were used by
international drug traffickers during the 1980s to transit
the
island en route to the United States
(see Dominican Republic - Crime
, ch. 5).
Data as of December 1989
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