Cabins on the Santo Domingo Cable Car (Teleférico de Santo Domingo) sport the national colours of the Dominican Republic — red, white and blue. Image from PresidenciaRD.
With all the celebrations happening last week for the Orange Line in La Paz, we nearly forgot about another exciting cable car project currently underway — the Santo Domingo Cable Car (Spanish: Teleférico de Santo Domingo).
Located in the Dominican Republic’s capital city, reports online suggest this new Cable Propelled Transit (CPT) line is now 75% complete. This week the pilot cable is being pulled and if everything goes according to plan, the cable car will officially open its doors to passengers in December.
At 5km in length, this aerial lift will be one of the longest CPT systems in the world — on par with La Paz’s 5km Blue Line. The ropeway was first conceptualized in 2014 as part of President Danilo Medina’s Rehabilitation program which aimed to improve quality of life for those living in Barquita and its surrounding neighbourhoods.
While the urban gondola was designed to solve a multitude of problems, its primary objectives were to decrease social segregation, enhance mobility and to incorporate disadvantaged neighbourhoods into the city proper.
Technicians performing tests on cable car to ensure maximum safety and reliability. Image from PresidenciaRD.
The Santo Domingo cable car employed over 500 local workers. Image from PresidenciaRD.
Due to poor road connectivity and conditions, land based transport was ineffective and commuters faced long travel times. In particular, traffic bottlenecks at the Jacinto J Peynado and Sabana Perdida bridges exacerbated congestion. Officials estimate that out of the community’s 287,000 residents, 65% do not own a vehicle while 80% are reliant upon unregulated local transit modes such as motorcycle/car taxis.
To solve these problems, the government released a tender for the construction of the cable car in early 2015 where French ropeway manufacturer, POMA, secured the US$65 million (RD$3 billion) project. Unfortunately, while the system broke ground in January 2016, construction works experienced a number of delays due to land acquisition difficulties. Luckily though, it appears most of these disputes have now been largely resolved.
Once construction and testing is complete in December, the 4-station cable car will span the Ozama river and serve three districts: Santo Domingo Norte, Santo Domingo Este, and Distrito Nacional. At the Gualey terminal, users will be able to directly connect to the Eduardo Brito Metro station via an underground tunnel. Users are projected to reduce their daily commute times by 30 minutes while spending 70% less on a transit ticket (US$0.40/RD$20).
| Opening | Dec 2017 |
| Length (km) | 5 |
| Capacity (pphpd) | 3,000 |
| Speed (m/s) | 5.0 |
| Cabin capacity | 10 |
| Travel Time | 20 mins |