CELESTAVIA · From Greater Santo Domingo to the Cibao, from the ports to the border
The aerial network that joins the Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic moves almost everything it produces, everything it exports and nearly everyone who visits it by road, and it has no intercity railway. This is the missing layer: electric, driverless, free of level crossings and running continuously.
Transport system: US$ 37,221 million 2,400 km network First sections in 24 monthsA self-initiated document. Like the Panama, Spain, Mexico and Brazil profiles, and unlike the Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Argentina programmes —which were built on plans supplied by their promoters—, this Dominican Republic profile was prepared by Celestavia on its own account, from Dominican public data and the system's unit cost reference. It does not derive from any plan submitted by or to any Dominican authority, and it has not been discussed with the Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC), the National Institute of Transit and Land Transport (INTRANT), the Office for the Reorganisation of Transport (OPRET), the Dominican Port Authority, the Directorate General of Customs or any municipal government. The alignment, the distances, the phasing and the amounts are profile-level estimates, subject to the Phase 0 feasibility studies.
Executive summary
The Dominican Republic does not lack roads. It has some 5,600 km of paved roads, modern trunk motorways —the Duarte, the Northeast, the Coral, the Santo Domingo ring road— and, in the capital, two metro lines and a cable car. What it has is a single-mode dependency: there is no intercity passenger or freight railway, so every trip between cities, all cargo bound for the ports and almost all tourism to the eastern resorts travels by road —in a country that records some 3,000 road deaths a year —2,967 reported in 2021, a WHO-estimated rate of 27.4 per 100,000 inhabitants—.
The Celestavia proposal for the Dominican Republic is a suspended aerial network of 2,400 km of double track, electric, driverless and continuously running, strung on towers at intervals of about 100 metres, in 24 corridors. It does not compete with the Santo Domingo Metro, the cable cars or the Santiago monorail: it feeds them, and it covers what none of them serves —travel between cities, the palletised and refrigerated cargo that now leaves by truck for the ports, and the southwest and the border strip, which are the least accessible regions of the country.
Methodological note. The figures are profile-level pre-studies, built on the Celestavia system's unit reference (US$ 12,144,000 per kilometre) adjusted by a terrain factor specific to each corridor. The figure this page leads with is the transport system —infrastructure plus megastations— and not the grand total, for the reason explained under Investment. The amounts are indicative and do not constitute an offer.
Terrain factors used
| Factor | Applies to |
|---|---|
| 1.00 | The eastern coastal plain and the dry valley of the Northwest Line. |
| 1.05 | The Cibao Valley, the inland plains of the East and the San Juan valley. |
| 1.10 | The Atlantic coast, the Northeast coast and the dry south coast from Baní to Barahona. |
| 1.15 | The border strip, the Enriquillo basin and the Northwest sierra. |
| 1.20 | The Cordillera Septentrional between Santiago and Puerto Plata, and the Bahoruco coast as far as Pedernales. |
| 1.25 | The two metropolitan loops. |
| 1.35 | The Cordillera Central: Jarabacoa–Constanza and the Valle Nuevo crossing to San José de Ocoa. |
The seven factors in this table are exactly those used in the route table; none is used outside it.
Diagnosis: what a country that already has motorways is missing
It is worth starting with what the Dominican Republic has already solved, because any proposal that ignores it is not worth reading. In two decades the country built a network of trunk motorways, a two-line metro and two urban cable cars integrated with it; in Caucedo and Haina it has two container ports of regional scale, and it receives close to nine million visitors a year by air. None of that is the subject of this proposal.
What remains open is of a different kind.
| Gap | Documented situation | Celestavia response |
|---|---|---|
| Road safety | WHO records 2,967 reported road deaths in 2021 and estimates a rate of 27.4 per 100,000 inhabitants. 71 % of those killed were on motorcycles: of the 6.6 million vehicles registered at the end of 2025, 57.9 % are motorcycles. | Segregated guided track, no level crossings, no human driver in the cabin and AI-based control. The target is zero accidents. |
| A single mode | The country has no public intercity passenger or freight railway. All cargo to and from the ports, and all travel between provinces, depends on the road; WHO counts some 5,600 km of paved roads. | An electric, continuous track for cargo and passengers, independent of motorway traffic, with automated warehouses at port, border and megastation. |
| Metropolitan congestion | Greater Santo Domingo is home to 3.8 million people, more than a third of the country. The IDB estimated some 75 million hours lost to congestion in 2019 at a cost of US$ 180 million; in its sample of ten Latin American cities, Santo Domingo was among the least congested, so this proposal's case rests not on congestion but on mode. | Two metropolitan loops —Greater Santo Domingo and Santiago— independent of surface traffic, with stops every 400 to 800 m and integration with the Metro, the cable cars and the monorail where they meet. |
| The southwest and the border | The southwestern and border provinces —Pedernales, Independencia, Bahoruco, Elías Piña, Dajabón— are among the least populated and worst connected in the country, several hours by road from Santo Domingo and Santiago, and depend on one or two roads per valley. | Six Phase III corridors in the southwest, the Cordillera Central and the border strip, with stations every few kilometres and a subsidised fare. |
| Logistics and ports | The port system handled in the order of 2.4 million TEU and 40 million tonnes, according to the Port Authority. The free zones sustain 200,237 direct jobs in 98 parks, and their exports leave almost entirely through Caucedo and Haina, by road. | Four corridors that end at a port —Caucedo, Haina, Puerto Plata and Manzanillo—, each with an automated warehouse and an interchange terminal. |
| Tourism | In 2025, 8,860,709 non-resident passengers arrived by air. Punta Cana airport received 71.9 % of foreign visitors, at the far eastern end of the island and some 200 km from the capital. | The Coral Corridor between La Romana, Higüey, Bávaro and Punta Cana, for the visitor and, above all, for the worker who keeps the resort area running and lives far from it. |
| Imported energy | The country produces no oil: all the fuel its road transport runs on is imported. | 100 % electric traction, with solar and wind generation on the tower easement itself. |
Sources: World Health Organization (Global Status Report on Road Safety 2023, Dominican Republic profile); Directorate General of Internal Taxes (Vehicle Fleet Report 2025); National Statistics Office (10th National Population and Housing Census 2022); Inter-American Development Bank (Urban Congestion in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2019 data); Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (Tourist Flow Report 2025); National Council of Export Free Zones (Statistical Report 2025); Dominican Port Authority (statements by its executive director, July 2026). They are quoted rounded and for context, not as primary data of this proposal; readers who need precision should go to the source. The population used in this page's calculations is that of the 2022 census: 10,773,983 inhabitants. The reading of each figure and the proposed response are Celestavia's.
Main objective and specific objectives
Main objective. To give the Dominican Republic a layer of guided, aerial, electric transport that handles travel between cities, access to the ports and the connection of the southwest and the border, and that takes off the road the cargo that today has no other route, without widening the road footprint or adding heavy vehicles to motorways that already carry everything.
Decongest without paving
Take the daily commute of Greater Santo Domingo and Santiago off the pavement with an independent aerial layer, instead of adding lanes to corridors that fill up again.
Get cargo off the truck
Container, refrigerated and palletised freight on a segregated, continuous track, from free zone to port and from farm to port, with no transshipment and no competing for the lane with road haulage.
Join the country end to end
Continuous service from Montecristi to Punta Cana and from Puerto Plata to Pedernales, including Samaná, the Cordillera Central and the San Juan valley.
Zero deaths on the road
Replace road trips with trips on a segregated guided track, in a country where motorcyclists account for most road deaths.
Reach the southwest and the border
Barahona, Pedernales, Independencia, Bahoruco, Elías Piña and Dajabón with continuous service, not the frequency of an intercity bus.
Zero operating emissions
100 % electric traction, with solar and wind generation on the tower easement itself, in a country that imports all the fuel its transport runs on.
Ports, free zones and tourism: the platform that already exists
The Dominican Republic is already a logistics and tourism platform. Caucedo, operated by DP World next to Las Américas International Airport, has capacity for some 2.5 million TEU; Haina, on the western edge of the capital, is the country's main multipurpose port and received 1,637 vessel calls in 2024. The free zones and tourism complete the chain.
The platform already exists; what it lacks is an access route other than the motorway. Four corridors in this programme end at a port: the Eastern Corridor (Route 5) at Caucedo, next to Las Américas International Airport; the Southern Port Corridor (Route 7) at Haina; the Santiago – Puerto Plata Corridor (Route 4) at the port of Puerto Plata, which gives the Cibao its natural outlet to the Atlantic; and the Northern Border Route (Route 9) at Manzanillo. Each ends at an automated warehouse with a direct interface to the port compound, so the container reaches the quay without crossing the city.
The free zones are the other end of the same chain. Many of the parks are in Greater Santo Domingo, in Santiago and along the Cibao —that is, on the Cibao Trunk Line and the Santiago Loop—, and their exports leave almost entirely through Caucedo and Haina. Tourism, finally, is concentrated at one end of the country, Bávaro and Punta Cana, while the people who keep it running live tens of kilometres away: the Coral Corridor (Route 6) is designed above all for them.
Data from DP World Caucedo, Haina International Terminals, the Dominican Port Authority, the National Council of Export Free Zones and the Central Bank (with data from the Ministry of Tourism and the Directorate General of Migration). The port-system figures come from public statements by the Port Authority and do not specify a reference year. The alignment of the port corridors is a Celestavia proposal that has not been presented to any port authority.
The Celestavia Dominican Republic network: routes and alignment
The alignment does not replicate the existing road network: it complements it. It rests on four principles applied to Dominican geography: (i) follow the axes of real demand —Greater Santo Domingo, the Cibao between Santiago and La Vega, and the eastern tourist area account for most of the activity—; (ii) fly over the stretches where the road is structurally vulnerable —the Cordillera Septentrional between Santiago and Puerto Plata, the Cordillera Central, the Bahoruco coast—; (iii) reach where the road will not reach at a reasonable cost —Valle Nuevo, the Northwest sierra, the Miches coast—; and (iv) end every corridor at an outlet: port, airport, border or intermodal terminal.
Route table
| No. | Name | Alignment | Setting | km | Phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greater Santo Domingo Metropolitan Loop | Distrito Nacional – Santo Domingo Este – Santo Domingo Norte – Los Alcarrizos – Santo Domingo Oeste | Urban | 90 | I |
| 2 | Santiago Metropolitan Loop | Centro – Cienfuegos – Gurabo – Pontezuela – Tamboril – Licey al Medio | Urban | 40 | I |
| 3 | Cibao Trunk Line | Santo Domingo – Villa Altagracia – Bonao – La Vega – Santiago | Valley / foothills | 155 | I |
| 4 | Santiago – Puerto Plata Corridor | Santiago – Navarrete – Altamira – Puerto Plata | Cordillera Septentrional | 75 | I |
| 5 | Eastern Corridor | Santo Domingo – Las Américas Airport / Port of Caucedo – Boca Chica – San Pedro de Macorís – La Romana | Coastal plain | 110 | I |
| 6 | Coral Corridor | La Romana – Higüey – Bávaro – Punta Cana | Eastern plain | 110 | I |
| 7 | Southern Port Corridor | Santo Domingo – Haina – San Cristóbal – Baní | South coast | 65 | I |
| 8 | Northwest Line | Santiago – Navarrete – Esperanza – Mao – Montecristi | Cibao Valley | 120 | II |
| 9 | Northern Border Route | Montecristi – Pepillo Salcedo (Port of Manzanillo) – Dajabón (border) | Border | 50 | II |
| 10 | Eastern Cibao Route | Santiago – Moca – Salcedo – San Francisco de Macorís – Nagua | Cibao Valley | 130 | II |
| 11 | Northeast Corridor | Santo Domingo – Northeast Motorway – Sánchez – Samaná | Plain and coast | 165 | II |
| 12 | Amber Coast Route | Puerto Plata – Sosúa – Cabarete – Río San Juan – Nagua | Atlantic coast | 125 | II |
| 13 | Southern Route | Baní – Azua – Barahona | Dry south coast | 125 | II |
| 14 | San Juan Valley Route | Azua – San Juan de la Maguana | Valley | 80 | II |
| 15 | Inland East Route | San Pedro de Macorís – Hato Mayor – El Seibo – Higüey | Eastern plain | 100 | II |
| 16 | Monte Plata Route | Santo Domingo Norte – Monte Plata – Bayaguana – Hato Mayor | Inland plain | 100 | II |
| 17 | Yuna Valley Route | Bonao – Cotuí – Pimentel – San Francisco de Macorís | Yuna valley | 80 | II |
| 18 | Cordillera Central Route | La Vega – Jarabacoa – Constanza | High mountain | 75 | III |
| 19 | Constanza – Ocoa Crossing | Constanza – Valle Nuevo – San José de Ocoa – Baní | High mountain | 115 | III |
| 20 | Central Border Route | San Juan de la Maguana – Las Matas de Farfán – Elías Piña (border) | Border | 55 | III |
| 21 | Lake Enriquillo Route | Barahona – Cabral – Neiba – La Descubierta – Jimaní (border) | Enriquillo basin | 110 | III |
| 22 | Pedernales Route | Barahona – Paraíso – Enriquillo – Oviedo – Cabo Rojo – Pedernales (border) | Bahoruco range / coast | 125 | III |
| 23 | Northwest Sierra Route | Mao – Santiago Rodríguez – Loma de Cabrera – Dajabón | Sierra | 80 | III |
| 24 | Miches Route | Higüey – Miches – Sabana de la Mar | Northeast coast | 120 | III |
| TOTAL | 2,400 | ||||
Distances are estimated alignment lengths along the axes shown, checked against road distances computed over OpenStreetMap; they do not come from a topographic survey. The two metropolitan loops are design lengths. The final alignment is set in the Phase 0 studies.
Implementation phases
I Phase I — the core
645 km. The two metropolitan loops, the Cibao Trunk Line between Santo Domingo and Santiago, Santiago's link to Puerto Plata, the Eastern Corridor to La Romana with Caucedo and Las Américas airport, the Coral Corridor to Punta Cana and the Southern Port Corridor to Baní. This is where most of the country lives and works, and where the system starts to earn revenue. Infrastructure investment: US$ 8,543 M.
II Phase II — the regions
1,075 km. The Northwest Line to Montecristi and the northern border via Manzanillo and Dajabón, the eastern Cibao to Nagua, the Yuna valley, the Northeast to Samaná, the Amber Coast, the Southern Route to Barahona, the San Juan valley, the inland East and Monte Plata. It connects farm output, the free zones and northern tourism with the trunk line. Infrastructure investment: US$ 13,887 M.
III Phase III — where the road does not reach
680 km. The Cordillera Central between Jarabacoa and Constanza and the Valle Nuevo crossing to Ocoa, the central border via Elías Piña, the Enriquillo basin to Jimaní, the Bahoruco coast to Pedernales, the Northwest sierra and the Miches coast. This is the territorial-equity phase and the most technically demanding one. Infrastructure investment: US$ 9,961 M.
One system, every mode
Celestavia is not a passenger cable car with some cargo added. It is a general-purpose guided transport system: the track, the towers and the cable are the same for everything that runs on them, and what changes from one service to another is the carriage that is coupled on, not the infrastructure. A single investment serves the commuter from Los Alcarrizos, the banana grower in Mao and the logistics operator at Caucedo.
| Service | Transport unit | Intended use in the Dominican Republic |
|---|---|---|
| Passengers | Air-conditioned 9- and 18-seat cabins and carriages | The two metropolitan loops, the Cibao Trunk Line, the Coral Corridor to Bávaro and Punta Cana, the Amber Coast and the Cordillera Central. |
| Containerised cargo | 20-foot, 25 t chassis; one for a 20-foot container, two coupled (50 t) for 40, 45, 48 and 60-foot boxes | Caucedo, Haina, Puerto Plata and Manzanillo; the free-zone parks of Greater Santo Domingo, Santiago and the Cibao. |
| Refrigerated cargo | Carriage with an unbroken cold chain, no transshipment | Organic bananas from the Northwest Line and Azua, avocados, cacao from the Northeast, vegetables from Constanza and the San Juan valley, fish from Samaná and Montecristi. |
| Palletised cargo and parcels | Light carriage, with an automated warehouse at the station | Metropolitan distribution, e-commerce and supply to the eastern hotels. |
| Vehicles | Vehicle-carrier platform on the same 25-tonne chassis | Car, SUV and light truck, on the mountain and coastal stretches where the road is slow or vulnerable. |
| Livestock and farm inputs | Ventilated carriage, with washing and sanitary control at the station | The Northwest Line, the San Juan valley, the cattle-raising East and the border strip. |
| Emergency | Priority dispatch for ambulance, fire and rescue | The whole network, with priority over all other traffic. |
A limit worth stating. The system's reference chassis is 25 tonnes and 20 feet long. A 20-foot container travels on one chassis; 40, 45, 48 and 60-foot containers travel on two coupled chassis, with a combined capacity of 50 tonnes —comfortably above the maximum gross weight of a 40-foot container, which is 30.48 tonnes. What the system does not carry is a fully loaded articulated truck. For that segment the step is intermodal: the container travels, not the tractor.
And one clarification about the table above. Passengers, containers, refrigerated cargo, palletised cargo and emergency dispatch are services already defined in the published Celestavia programmes. The vehicle-carrier platform and the livestock carriage are not: they derive from the 25-tonne reference chassis and the same coupling, but they are not yet a specified product. Defining them is Phase 0 work.
One island, one border
The Dominican Republic is the only published Celestavia programme whose territory shares an island with another State. It shares Hispaniola with Haiti along a land border of some 376 km, and that is its only land border. On the Dominican side, the border provinces —Montecristi, Dajabón, Santiago Rodríguez, Elías Piña, Independencia and Pedernales— are among those with the least access to services in the country.
Five corridors in this programme reach the four main border crossings. Their purpose is not to open a new crossing but to give the border provinces what they lack today: continuous service to Santiago and Santo Domingo, and a logistics terminal next to the binational markets that already exist.
| Crossing | Route that ends there | On the other side |
|---|---|---|
| Dajabón (Dajabón) | Routes 9 and 23 — Northern Border and Northwest Sierra | Ouanaminthe, Haiti. No Celestavia programme. |
| Comendador (Elías Piña) | Route 20 — Central Border | Belladère, Haiti. No Celestavia programme. |
| Jimaní (Independencia) | Route 21 — Lake Enriquillo | Malpasse, Haiti. No Celestavia programme. |
| Pedernales (Pedernales) | Route 22 — Pedernales | Anse-à-Pitres, Haiti. No Celestavia programme. |
It is worth stating precisely: no section of this programme crosses the border. Every corridor ends on the Dominican side and hands over to a terminal; what crosses and how is a matter for the authorities of both States. Haiti has no Celestavia programme and this page neither proposes one nor takes any position on it.
Border length per the CIA World Factbook. The four crossings and the routes that end at them come from this page's own route table. The logistics role proposed next to the binational markets is a Celestavia estimate.
Station types and sizing
| Type | Typical spacing | Function | Estimated number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multifunctional megastation | about every 50 km | Cargo and passenger interchange, power generation, fibre and 5G hub, automated warehouse, control centre, public-service and retail units. Those at Caucedo, Haina, Puerto Plata, Manzanillo, Punta Cana, Dajabón, Elías Piña, Jimaní and Pedernales are also interchange terminals with a port, airport or border. | 48 |
| Intermediate station | every 2.5 to 5 km on intercity corridors | Passenger boarding and alighting, light cargo, covered platforms. | about 605 |
| Stop | every 400 to 800 m on urban sections | Neighbourhood pedestrian access, integrated with the Metro, the cable cars, the monorail and the bus corridors where they meet. | about 217 |
The last two figures are derived separately and not from the same distance: the stops from the 130 urban km of the two metropolitan loops; the intermediate stations from the remaining 2,270 intercity km. Megastations are counted over the full 2,400 km. Everything is adjusted in detailed design.
Estimated investment (profile-level pre-studies)
The figure this page leads with is the transport system: infrastructure plus megastations, US$ 37,221 million. That is what it costs to build the network.
Celestavia infrastructure
2,400 km of two-way track, with its intermediate stations and stops, excluding land and megastations. That is US$ 13,496,285 per kilometre, the weighted average (factor 1.1114) of the terrain factors of the 24 corridors.
48 multifunctional megastations
Power generation and transmission, fibre optics and 5G, cargo and passengers, AI video surveillance, mobile booking, automated warehouses and a maintenance fleet. With rentable units for medical and therapy practices, retail, public-service offices and meeting space — never casinos or bars.
The community component, and why it is shown separately
The other Celestavia programmes include a third line, sized at US$ 2,265 per inhabitant, which funds education, integral health, housing, agricultural development and a subsidised fare. Applied to the 10,773,983 inhabitants of the 2022 census it comes to US$ 24,403 million.
That figure should not be read as a Dominican investment requirement. The Dominican Republic already runs a public health and social security system —the National Health Service and the National Health Insurance (SENASA)—, a school feeding programme and social protection programmes, and the parameter was calibrated for settings where that coverage does not exist. It is kept here for methodological comparability with the other programmes and flagged explicitly so that the reader can discount it or redefine it from the real gaps of the southwest and the border. Added to the system, the nominal grand total would be US$ 61,624 million; the useful figure for the Dominican Republic is the transport system, and it is the one used throughout the rest of this page, including the jobs estimate.
Infrastructure is obtained by applying the unit reference of US$ 12.144 million per kilometre to each corridor with its terrain factor. The 48 megastations are valued at US$ 100.63 million each —one for every 50 km of the 2,400 proposed—, the same parameter as the Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Panama, Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Sierra Leone programmes. All three are Celestavia calculations, not quotations.
Who builds what: scope split
Of the investment in the transport system —infrastructure plus megastations, US$ 37,221 million— most is not carried out by Celestavia but by the companies of the Celestavia Intermodal Consortium.
On the full transport system — US$ 37,221 million
US$ 31,638 M
US$ 5,583 M
On the infrastructure line — US$ 32,391 million
The two groups are measured on different bases and are not added together: the first splits the whole system, the second breaks down only the infrastructure line.
Celestavia keeps only the on-board electronics, the software and the system control, plus integration engineering and certification. Everything else —towers, foundations, cables, cabins, stations, power grid, fibre and 5G— is tendered to third parties. The breakdown of the infrastructure line (US$ 32,391 million) is as follows:
| Component | Executed by | % of line | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Towers — structural fabrication | Third parties | 18 % | US$ 5,830 M |
| Tower foundations and civil works | Third parties | 9 % | US$ 2,915 M |
| Cables, fittings and stringing | Third parties | 9 % | US$ 2,915 M |
| Tower and cable erection and installation | Third parties | 8 % | US$ 2,591 M |
| Cabins, carriages and chassis — fabrication | Third parties | 16 % | US$ 5,183 M |
| Intermediate stations and stops — works | Third parties | 7 % | US$ 2,267 M |
| Generation, substations and power grid | Third parties | 13 % | US$ 4,211 M |
| Fibre optics and 5G — equipment and laying | Third parties | 4 % | US$ 1,296 M |
| On-board electronics, control and sensing | Celestavia | 8 % | US$ 2,591 M |
| Software, AI, control centres, booking and fare collection | Celestavia | 4 % | US$ 1,296 M |
| Systems engineering, integration and certification | Celestavia | 4 % | US$ 1,296 M |
The split by component is a Celestavia pre-feasibility estimate on the budget published on this page; the composition percentages are structural and apply equally to every national programme. Within the infrastructure line the column adds up to 84 % for third parties and 16 % for Celestavia; once the megastations are added —built entirely by third parties except for their electronics and control— the split for the whole system is 85/15. In the Dominican Republic, civil works, foundations, erection and much of the station work can be contracted to local firms; the tower structure, the cable and the cabins will at first depend on imported manufacturing. Quantifying that share is Phase 0 work.
Relationship with the Metro, the cable cars and the monorail
Santo Domingo runs a two-line metro that carried 79.1 million trips between January and September 2024, extended in February 2026 by Line 2C, 7.3 km and five stations, to Los Alcarrizos. Two cable-car lines connect with them —the 5 km Santo Domingo Norte line, opened in May 2018, and the Los Alcarrizos line, opened in May 2023—, and in Santiago the monorail, 13 km with 14 stations, is in testing with a gradual opening planned. The two metropolitan loops in this proposal overlap that network. It is better to say so plainly than to leave the reader to notice.
It is not competition
The metro, the cable cars and the monorail handle mass travel within the city along fixed axes. Loops 1 and 2 cover the fabric those axes do not reach: the neighbourhoods between one line and the next, and light urban cargo, which none of the three carries.
It is a feeder
With stops every 400 to 800 m, the system's natural role in Greater Santo Domingo and Santiago is to bring passengers to the nearest metro, cable-car or monorail station, not to compete for the trip. Phase 0 design must start from OPRET's built and planned network, not ignore it.
Outside the city there is no overlap
Twenty-two of the 24 proposed corridors are intercity, and there is no guided transport of any kind between Dominican cities today. The Cibao, the East, the South and the border depend entirely on the road.
Data from the Office for the Reorganisation of Transport (OPRET) and the Office of the President on the Santo Domingo Metro and cable cars, and from public sources on the progress of the Santiago Monorail as of 2026. The comparison with this page's routes is Celestavia's reading.
Engineering adapted to Dominican conditions
Seismicity
The Septentrional fault runs through the Cibao valley along the same axis as the Cibao Trunk Line and the Northwest Line, and the northeast of the country suffered an earthquake of magnitude close to 8 in 1946. The tower-and-cable structure tolerates deformation without loss of service, and the towers carry permanent seismic monitoring.
Hurricanes
The island lies in the path of Atlantic hurricanes —David in 1979, Georges in 1998, Fiona in 2022—. Towers designed for the region's wind loads, a protocol to suspend service and shelter cabins in stations, and resumption of service without surface repairs.
Torrential rain
Floods and urban flooding often cut roads and avenues, as in November 2023 in Greater Santo Domingo. The aerial alignment passes over riverbeds and underpasses, and service does not depend on road drainage.
Cordillera Central
Pico Duarte, the highest peak in the Caribbean, and the Constanza and Jarabacoa valleys impose steep gradients and large changes in height. The cable spans the climb without hillside cuts or retaining works along the route, which is exactly where mountain roads fail.
Coastal environment
Much of the network runs within a few kilometres of the sea. Anti-corrosion protection of towers, fittings and cable sized for a saline environment, and more frequent inspection on coastal sections.
Protected areas
The Phase III alignment borders or crosses protected areas in the Cordillera Central and the southwest, including Valle Nuevo and the Jaragua–Bahoruco–Enriquillo biosphere reserve. Design starts from the environmental assessment required by Law 64-00 and from an aerial easement alignment, not from opening new roads.
Benefits of the system
Safety
A segregated track with no level crossings and no driver. In a country where traffic kills some 3,000 people a year, seven in ten of them on motorcycles, every trip moved onto the network is a trip removed from the statistics.
Time
Operating speeds of up to 120 km/h with no traffic lights, tolls or congestion, on corridors where the commercial speed of buses and trucks today is far below that.
Emissions
100 % electric traction, with solar and wind generation on the easement itself, in the sector that burns the most imported fuel.
Connectivity
A 5G cell and a fibre hub on every tower: the transport network is also the corridor's telecommunications network, including the mountains where there is no coverage today.
Resilience
Service does not depend on the road bed. When the road is cut by a landslide, a flood or a hurricane, the system becomes the emergency route.
Territorial equity
Pedernales, Elías Piña, Dajabón, Constanza and Miches come within hours of Santo Domingo and Santiago with continuous service, not a full day's journey.
Comparison with a four-lane motorway
| Criterion | 4-lane motorway | Celestavia |
|---|---|---|
| Easement width | 40 to 60 m of continuous land | A few m² per tower, every 100 m |
| Right-of-way acquisition | A continuous strip, with expropriation and resettlement along the whole alignment | Spot acquisition, at the base of each tower |
| Running surface | Periodic resurfacing | None |
| Cut by landslide, flood or hurricane | Frequent in the mountains and in hurricane season | The alignment passes overhead |
| Accidents | Inherent to human drivers | Guided track, target of zero |
| Operating emissions | Those of the vehicle fleet | Zero |
| Time to service | Years per section | 24 months for the first sections, in independent modules |
Job creation
The full programme would mobilise in the order of 409,000 to 506,000 direct and indirect jobs over the whole construction period, plus the permanent operation of the system.
This figure should be read with care. It is the aggregate of a deployment over several years, not simultaneous employment, and even so it is equivalent to between 8 and 10 % of the 5.1 million people in work recorded by the Continuous Labour Force Survey. That is a large magnitude for the Dominican labour market: it requires a technical training plan from year one —built on INFOTEP and the higher technical institutes— and, at construction peaks, specialist staff brought in from abroad. It is a condition of the project, not a side effect.
Celestavia estimate obtained by applying to the investment in the transport system (US$ 37,221 million, without the community component) the jobs-per-million ratio of the Peru and Argentina programmes —in the order of 11 to 13.6 jobs per million dollars. It does not come from a Dominican employment study. It is the same base as the Mexico programme; the Panama programme applied the ratio to the grand total.
Financial structure and participation
This page contains two different splits that should not be confused: who owns the programme and who carries out the works. They are percentages of different things, measured on different bases, and so they are not added together.
1. Ownership of the programme — 100 % of the company
75 % Celestavia
Contributes the technology, the on-board electronics, the control software, the systems engineering and the financial structuring of the programme.
25 % Dominican State
Contributes the aerial easement, the concession framework and the specific legislation an aerial guided system requires, and shares in the results in that proportion.
2. Execution of the works — 100 % of the transport system, US$ 37,221 million
85 % to third parties — US$ 31,638 M
Most of the works are tendered among the companies of the Celestavia Intermodal Consortium, with preference for Dominican suppliers and contractors where local capacity exists.
15 % Celestavia — US$ 5,583 M
Only on-board electronics, software and control, plus integration engineering and certification. The full breakdown is under Scope split.
75 % of the company and 15 % of the works scope do not contradict each other: the first is ownership of the programme over its life; the second is the share of construction Celestavia keeps for itself. The nominal community component (US$ 24,403 million) is outside both splits and, for the reasons given under Investment, should not be read as an investment requirement for the Dominican Republic.
No figure on this page constitutes an offer. The final structure is agreed with the State in Phase 0. Law 47-20 on Public-Private Partnerships and its regulations offer a route for a scheme of this kind, but an aerial guided transport system is not expressly provided for in Law 63-17 on Mobility, Land Transport, Traffic and Road Safety, and the aerial easement requires coordination with the regime of Law 491-06 on Civil Aviation. Fitting the three together is legislative work, not engineering.
An island in the Celestavia network
Celestavia's intention is for its national programmes in the Americas to link into a continuous corridor from North America to Tierra del Fuego. The Dominican Republic cannot join that chain by land, and that is worth saying first: it is an island, its only land border is with Haiti —where there is no Celestavia programme—, and every other published programme lies across open sea.
That does not invalidate the corridors: the Dominican alignment stands on its own merits, on intercity travel, cargo to the ports and access for the southwest and the border. But it does rule out selling a continuity that does not exist. This programme's relationship with the others is through its ports: Caucedo, Haina, Puerto Plata and Manzanillo are where the Dominican network hands cargo to the sea, and what happens after that is shipping, not Celestavia.
| Programme | km | Relationship to this one |
|---|---|---|
| Ecuador | 4,887 | Pacific spine. No land link. |
| Colombia | 6,965 | Pacific spine. The nearest by sea, across the Caribbean. |
| Peru | 12,595 | Pacific spine. No land link. |
| Argentina | 17,970 | Pacific spine. No land link. |
| Panama | 1,554 | Pacific spine. No land link; Colón is the other major Caribbean port in the network. |
| Spain | 8,950 | Europe. Its three island networks —Majorca, Tenerife and Gran Canaria— are the closest technical precedent for this programme. |
| Mexico | 14,920 | Pacific spine. No land link; the Yucatán peninsula is the programme's nearest coast. |
| Brazil | 25,875 | Atlantic face. No land link. |
| Sierra Leone | 1,579 | West Africa. Published the same day as this one; no physical relationship to it. |
| Dominican Republic | 2,400 | This page. The first island programme in the Americas. |
The table reflects the Celestavia programmes published to date and their declared distances; it is not an inventory of third-party projects. The eight programmes in the Americas total 87,166 km proposed including this one —84,766 without it—, Spain adds another 8,950 in Europe and Sierra Leone 1,579 in Africa. That they exist on paper does not mean they are approved: none of them is.
Implementation roadmap
| Phase | Content | Estimated timing |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 0 | Topographic, geotechnical, seismic, hydrological, environmental and archaeological studies; environmental authorisation from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources under Law 64-00, with specific attention to the protected areas the alignment crosses or borders; coordination with MOPC, INTRANT and OPRET; easement and airspace with the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute (IDAC); legal framework for the concession; detailed design of the first section. | 18 to 24 months |
| Phase I | Greater Santo Domingo and Santiago metropolitan loops; Cibao Trunk Line; Santiago–Puerto Plata; Eastern Corridor with Caucedo and Las Américas airport; Coral Corridor; Southern Port Corridor. Each 8 km section enters service independently. | First sections at 24 months |
| Phase II | Northwest Line and northern border, eastern Cibao, Yuna valley, Northeast and Samaná, Amber Coast, Southern Route, San Juan valley, inland East and Monte Plata. | Years 3 to 6 |
| Phase III | Cordillera Central and the Valle Nuevo crossing, central border, Enriquillo basin, Pedernales, Northwest sierra and Miches. | Years 5 to 8 |
Execution is modular and industrialised: each 8 km section is put into service on its own and its accounts are public in real time, so the programme does not depend on finishing a whole corridor before it starts serving passengers and earning revenue.
The length of Phase 0 is driven mainly by two things: detailed seismic survey along the Septentrional fault, which runs through the same Cibao valley the trunk line follows, and environmental assessment of the sections that touch protected areas in the Cordillera Central and the southwest. Neither can be sped up by engineering.
Conclusion
Over the last two decades the Dominican Republic has built motorways, a metro and cable cars, and it still moves almost everything it produces and nearly everyone who visits it by road. The network proposed here —2,400 km, a US$ 37,221 million transport system, 24 corridors and 48 megastations— is a technical answer to that single-mode dependency, not a promise. It is built on public data and on the system's cost reference, and every figure on this page states where it comes from. What is needed now is to test it against the people who know the country closely.
Annex: the food chain and integral health
One of the strategic pillars of the Celestavia system is the food chain, conceived as a complete ecosystem that runs from protecting and regenerating the soil to the integral health of the human being: food, health, housing, education, productive work, mobility, energy, communication, culture, recreation, social cooperation and environmental balance, linked as interdependent parts of a single living system.
The Dominican case: why this chain matters
The Dominican Republic has a different nutritional profile from other Celestavia programmes. According to the ENHOGAR-MICS 2019 survey (National Statistics Office and UNICEF), stunting among children under five is 6.7 % —1.6 % severe—, wasting is 2.2 %, and overweight has already reached 7.7 %: in the same age group there are more overweight children than chronically undernourished ones. The Dominican problem is less the quantity of food than the quality of the diet and access to fresh food.
The country produces high-quality food —it is one of the world's leading exporters of organic cacao and a prominent supplier of fair-trade bananas, and it grows avocados, vegetables in Constanza and the San Juan valley, rice in the Cibao and fish in Samaná and Montecristi—, often in provinces far from the markets that most need it. What is missing is the chain: collection at source, an unbroken cold chain, fewer post-harvest losses and less distance between what is produced in the southwest and the border and what is consumed in the cities, compounded by the same connectivity deficit this proposal's diagnosis documents.
The Celestavia system steps in at exactly that point. Preservation at source —from the farm or production unit straight into the cold store of the nearest station— and continuous, refrigerated transport with no transshipment let food reach the consumer with its nutritional profile practically intact, and let one region's surplus supply the neighbouring community in hours rather than days.
Integral health on the network
Food is linked directly to holistic and preventive medical services in every health centre and hospital on the system, with priority on prevention: adequate diet, sport, regular exercise and physical, social and cultural spaces that promote mental health.
In the Dominican Republic this network would work with the Ministry of Public Health, the National Health Service (SNS) and its primary-care network, the National Health Insurance (SENASA), the National Institute for Student Welfare (INABIE), which runs school feeding, and the Supérate programme; and with the national system for food sovereignty and food and nutrition security created by Law 589-16. Three programmes are prioritised: locally sourced, fresh and refrigerated food for school feeding and for households in the southwestern and border provinces; maternal and child health with safe, fast transfer of pregnant women from Pedernales, Independencia, Elías Piña and the Cordillera Central; and decentralised specialist care through telemedicine and rotating specialists, reducing dependence on trips to Santo Domingo and Santiago.
Sources: ENHOGAR-MICS 2019 Multiple Indicator Household Survey (National Statistics Office / UNICEF); Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dominican cacao export profile; FAO, study on fair-trade bananas. Figures are quoted rounded and for context; the institutional arrangement described is a Celestavia proposal and has not been agreed with any of the institutions named.
The Celestavia system has been designed and developed by the FUNDA A AFI Foundation, Global Genius Trust and Celestavia, as part of a long-term vision called the Route of Progress for Equity and Peace, which goes well beyond the conceptual limits of so-called “green cities”: this is not only about urban sustainability, but about an integral structural transformation.
Contact
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Request informationThe figures in this summary are preliminary technical and financial pre-studies of the Celestavia project for the Dominican Republic and are subject to the final feasibility studies.