THE U.S. Department of Transportation recently approved phase two of the Beach Road project, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said on Friday.
The project will now go out for bidding and will hopefully break ground by the end of this year, he added.
Phase two will be from the Golden Ribbon and Mobil gas station intersection in Chalan Piao to the intersection at Atkins Kroll Saipan in Oleai.
“So that’s really exciting. I know that Lt. Gov. [Arnold I. Palacios] has been working hard in following up on this project,” the governor said.
The Highway Task Force, led by Palacios, was formed in October. Its members are civil engineers, planners, and administrators from the Department of Public Works and the Capital Improvements Office. Their goal is to streamline plans and projects while securing funding for major highway projects in the CNMI.
Torres said he is grateful to all those who have “contributed to this milestone”: the Department of Public Works, the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality, the Historic Preservation Office as well as the CNMI’s federal partners.
“I look forward to an [awarding of the contract] soon so we can start… phase two [of this] road project,” he added.
The Beach Road project will resurface the road from San Antonio to Garapan.
Earlier this year, the CNMI held several groundbreaking ceremonies for road projects, including the repaving of Airport Road, the improvements to Route 36 Windward-Talofofo, and the installation of a traffic signal system at the Route 315 Quartermaster Road and Route 33 Beach Road intersection.
