Solution to decongest intersections avenues Los Próceres and República de Colombia
SANTO DOMINGO. - Students de Civil Engineering of the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) identified a solution for the problem of overcrowding vehicular in the roundabout José Martí, where the Los Próceres avenues y Republic of Colombia, and the Fontainebleau street, Which connect to all the northwest area of the National District with the city center, making it a high traffic point.
After carrying out both geometric and topographic surveys and a volumetric analysis of the vehicular flow in the area, with which they made capacity studies of the roundabout based on the method of the Center d'Etudes des Transports Urbains -CETUR-, calculations of optimal cycles of the options with traffic lights and their corresponding amount of traffic flow, determined that the roundabout fails with the vehicular demand.
“The José Martí roundabout no longer satisfies the needs of the vehicular flow that it receives through the confluent roads of Los Próceres avenues, República de Colombia, as well as Fontainebleau street, therefore, the overpasses would solve the problem in the intersection ”, they specify within the conclusions of the study that they presented as the final degree project.
After evaluating various options, the students considered that the most feasible way to reduce congestion is the construction de two elevated to go through above the Rotunda, one Próceres-Próceres and another República de Colombia-Fontainebleau.
In addition, they recommend corrective actions which include coordinated traffic lights at intersections close to the roundabout, so they suggest placing traffic lights with scheduled times on a continuous basis, avoiding obstruction and maintaining control in those areas that in one way or another affect the roundabout. The traffic lights would be located between Los Próceres and Circunvalación avenues; Los Próceres on the corner of Buena Ventura Feiter street; John F. Kennedy avenue corner Fontainebleau street and República de Colombia avenue corner Circunvalación.
Amparo Álvarez, Aridanny Piña, Carlos De Los Santos, Héctor Concepción, Juan Bautista, Juan Pimentel, Juan Feliz, Mariana Matos and Marianny Díaz, supporters of the study, warned that the traffic jam affects the connection between Luperón avenues and Abraham Lincoln avenues, a through Los Próceres avenue, and access to important local development points such as the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo, the Dr. Rafael Moscoso Botanical Garden, the National Office of Industrial Property (ONAPI), the Pedro Henríquez Ureña National University (UNPHU) and the United States Consulate, among others.
In their final degree project, Civil engineering students advised by the engineer Hugo Andres Morales Sosa, teacher of road engineering of INTEC, state that the traffic congestion has caused a traffic jam on the streets that meet at the José Martí roundabout during peak hours, producing long delays and constant accidents.
Using Infraworks 360 traffic software, a virtual simulation of the roundabout was carried out and it was visualized how the traffic flow would behave with different road solutions. The results were compared geometrically, functionally and economically.
The discarded options
Although they evaluated other viable options such as placing traffic lights at the José Martí roundabout or leaving it with an unevenness (tunnel or elevated), they discarded them because they represented a greater economic investment.
In addition, they evaluated five options in which the approach was to eliminate the emblematic roundabout: the first was to dispense with it and place traffic lights at the intersection or eliminate it and place a Próceres-Próceres tunnel; Another idea was to place an elevated Próceres-Próceres with a loop towards Fontainebleau Gardens without the roundabout. Finally, they considered eliminating it and building two elevated ones, one Próceres-Próceres and another Colombia-Fontainebleau, in both directions.
Vehicular flow
The future engineers evaluated the Vehicular flow during 13 hours, From the 6:00 in the morning until 7:00 at night, in a North-South and South-North, East-West and West-East direction, typifying the vehicles and their quantities at peak hours. Thus, they determined that on the day of the uprising, some 12,964 cars; 10,585 jeeps; 575 minibuses; 239 buses; 1,316 trucks; 365 patanas y 3,143 motorcycles, for a total of 19,660 vehicles.
At peak hours, the branch with the highest traffic congestion was on Los Próceres avenue in an east-west direction. While the branch where more accidents occurred within that rush hour and that agreed with the 13 hours measured was the same East-West and its turns to the right.