Collado closes the final phase of streets in the Colonial City with RD$221 million

Tourism Minister David Collado delivered this Monday the fully renovated Colón and Hostos streets (north and south sections), closing the road interventions of the Prioritized Streets Rehabilitation Plan in the Colonial City. The delivered work totaled RD$61.5 million and the program accumulates RD$221 million invested, as reported by Arecoa.

The technical detail matters for those operating in the area. Colón street, in the Vicente Celestino Duarte-Fuerte del Angulo section, gets red and dark gray high-traffic cobblestones, asphalt and concrete sidewalks, plus full storm drainage rehabilitation, urban furniture with benches and bollards, signage and landscaping with roble trees and bougainvillea. Hostos south and north receive new pavements, conduits for medium and low voltage, lighting and renovated drainage. These are interventions that reduce flooding and improve accessibility, two critical points for visitors walking the historic district.

The reading for the hotel and tour operation sector is direct: the Colonial City stops being a pass-through destination and consolidates as a pedestrian product. The closure of works in December, confirmed by Collado, is an opportunity for boutique hotels and walking tour operators to redesign routes and packages with longer, safer walks. The MITUR has also invested in restoring monuments, churches, museums and facades, and has already delivered 254 renovated homes in the surroundings, as reported in this outlet (254 renovated homes, works in progress). That synergy between public infrastructure and private heritage is what turns a pretty street into a commercial tourism corridor.

What is missing? The private sector needs to step up. Public investment is done: RD$221 million in streets and hundreds of millions in monuments and facades. The next move belongs to hotels, restaurants and shops: open terraces, extend hours and use the new pedestrianization to generate street-level offer. The Colonial City has the physical asset. Now it needs the commercial one.

Watch: compliance with the December deadline, the second IDB phase and, above all, the subsequent maintenance of the streets. A RD$221 million project without a conservation plan deteriorates in two years. The MITUR should announce that plan before closing the program.