ARTICLE - IDB - RTE. NATIONALE #1

INAUGURATION OF ROUTE NATIONALE #1
(Haiti Libre) -

The Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) and the Haitian Government announced yesterday the delivery of the rehabilitation work of the section Titanyen - Saint Marc on Route Nationale #1,... launched as a campaign to improve road safety. RN1 links the Haitian capital with the north of the country and over a quarter of Haiti's population lives along the corridor, making it one of the busiest routes in the country.

The rehabilitation of this road will reduce travel time by 50%, enabling people and commodities to flow more quickly. The Dominican company Estrella carried out the rehabilitation work.

President Michel Martelly present at the ceremony declared "...I participated in this ceremony of rehabilitation of the section Titayen / Saint-Marc especially to congratulate and thank for a job well done, all those who in one way or another, who have allowed realized it. I appreciate indeed, that all actors, at the level of funding, development and implementation of the project, have assumed their obligations to the specifications, and I consider the work carried out as an example to follow,... if the multilateral cooperation, really wants to be effective and focused on the satisfaction of the needs of zones served."

For his part, Luis Alberto Moreno, the IDB President declared "...It is with great pleasure that I am here with you this morning for the delivery of work for the rehabilitation of the RN1 and for launching the communication campaign for road safety. I am extremely proud that the IDB is a partner of the government and of the Haitian people in these two important initiatives for the development of the country [...] funded through a donation of $137 millions from the IDB [including the collaboration of the Government of Canada through CIDA]."

The engineer, Jacques Rousseau, Minister of Public Works, Transport, Energy and Communications provided some clarification on these impressive works "...this section of Route Nationale #1, which goes from Titayen and reaches Saint Marc, totals 71km. The width of the roadway is an average of 7 meters. There are shoulders of 1.5 meters on each side... [...] major drainage work was also done, about 27 km of ditches masonry and about 15,000 m3 of gabions have been installed in different rivers [...] sidewalk work has been carried out in the cities [...] because unlike the RN2, the RN1 goes through cities [...] so, about 9.000 m2 of sidewalk had to be made ​​[...] in addition to the stabilization slope [...]"

The IDB is the largest multilateral donor to Haiti. The transportation infrastructure represents one of the largest components of the Bank's portfolio for the country, which amounts to $1 billion.