Work on the Dominican Republic's long-delayed Amber Highway is set to start within 15 days, President Luis Abinader announced after a meeting in Madrid with Sergio Díaz-Granados of the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), which has signalled interest in backing the project. The government has already committed an initial RD$5.78 billion.
The roughly 35-kilometre toll road will link Santiago, the country's second city, with Puerto Plata on the north coast. Today the drive takes over an hour; once the highway opens it should drop to about 35 minutes. Presidencia Minister José Ignacio Paliza confirmed that preliminary work has already begun at Montellano in Puerto Plata province, and the first two environmental permits — covering the sections serving Santiago and Puerto Plata — are in hand.
The contract went to the Autopista del Ámbar Consortium, a grouping of Magna, Rizek Constructora, Ingeniería Estrella and Constructora Mar, awarded through the RD Vial Trust for around RD$28.8 billion. CAF, a partner the Dominican Republic has worked with for over two decades — the country joined in 2004 and became a full member in 2021 — opened Santo Domingo offices in 2025 and funds projects across infrastructure, tourism and energy.
For visitors, this is more than a road story. Puerto Plata's beaches, the cable car up Pico Isabel de Torres and the Victorian streets of its old town have long been an easy flight from North America but a slow haul from Santiago's airport and the inland interior. Halving that journey makes it far more realistic to combine the north coast with Santiago's cigars, mountains and city energy in a single trip, and should sharpen competition among resorts and tour operators in the region.
The bigger picture is that the Dominican Republic keeps investing heavily in the infrastructure tourists actually feel: faster airport transfers, better links between resort zones, easier access to less-visited corners of the north. If you've been putting off a Puerto Plata trip in favour of Punta Cana because of the logistics, the calculus is changing.
Travellers planning a north coast holiday in the next year or two should factor in possible roadworks delays on the current Santiago–Puerto Plata route while construction is under way, then look forward to a much quicker transfer once the Amber Highway opens. Credits: Dominican Today.
