Above: road works in Haiti (IDB Photo/Peter Bate)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti will receive a $53 million grant from the Inter-American Development Bank for an upgrade to the country’s principal highway, Route Nationale #1 (RN1), the bank announced Wednesday.

The funding will also support Haiti’s Ministry of Public Works and National Ports Authority.

The funding will invest in the rehabilitation of a 26.2-km stretch of road between Gonaives and Ennery, a portion of RN1 that connects Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien.

According to the IDB, traffic accidents are the leading cause of death among young people in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Haiti loses between 1 and 2 percent of its GDP each year due to the economic costs of crash-related deaths and injuries, according to the bank.

The grant will seek to help to modernize the National Ports Authority and improve the institutional capacity of the Public Works Ministry in areas like road maintenance and road safety, the bank said.

Last year, the IDB provided $70 million for another stretch between Titanyen and Saint Marc.

The IDB has approved $649 million in new grants and disbursed over $467 million to Haiti’s government since the 2010 earthquake in the country.