Department of Public Works Secretary Ray N. Yumul points to a map of San Jose during a meeting with officials of the Public School System, the Department of Public Safety and representatives of construction contractors in the conference room of the DPW Technical Services Division on Tuesday.
Department of Public Safety Sgt. Adrian Mendiola, center, gestures as he speaks as Lt. Daniel Smith, left, and Public School System Pupil Transportation Director Shaun San Nicolas listen.
OFFICIALS of the Department of Public Works, the Public School System and the Department of Public Safety on Tuesday discussed ways to ease the traffic congestion caused by the ongoing Beach Road construction in preparation for the opening of public schools on Aug. 20, 2024.
Present at the meeting in the DPW-Technical Services Division conference room were DPW Secretary Ray N. Yumul, PSS Pupil Transportation Director Shaun San Nicolas, DPS Highway Patrol’s Lt. Daniel Smith and Sgt. Adrian Mendiola, DPW highway engineers Jerry Tolentino and Manolo Reyes, and DPW highway administrator Lorraine Villagomez.
Also attending the meeting were GPPC project engineer Israel Laquero and Pacific Engineering Group & Services construction manager Fatima Pascual.
Yumul said the Beach Road construction is having “a few minor setbacks.” In particular, the construction activities at the stretch of Beach Road from the Atkins Kroll intersection to the Saipan Mayor’s Office in San Jose are causing a “bottleneck” because of the need to replace a portion of a sewer pipeline in the excavation area.
Nevertheless, Yumul added, the construction is in its final phase already.
Pascual said they aim to complete the entire road construction project from Garapan to Chalan Piao in November.
In the meantime, because of the school opening, Yumul said they had to sit down with DPS and PSS officials and discuss ways to mitigate the traffic jam on Beach Road.
Laquero said because of the ongoing construction at Atkins Kroll, traffic, including school buses going north, will have to be diverted from Beach Road to some of the streets in Oleai/San Jose.
But they also have to take into consideration the community in the village, which includes a church and a kindergarten school.
San Nicolas, a former teacher at Oleai Elementary School, said whenever it is open, the traffic in the area will be congested. He believes that diverting traffic from Beach Road will cause more traffic.
Everyone should be mindful also that there are a lot of children walking to school in that area, he added.
“Those are the things to consider. I recommend to have someone assist in the traffic,” he said.
Mendiola said there are 23,000 registered vehicles on Saipan. Once school starts, the traffic congestion in San Jose will reach Chalan Kiya. He said DPS Highway Patrol has noted that there are a lot of vehicles on the road from 7:30 a.m. to 8 a.m., from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
To reduce traffic at the construction sites on Beach Road, Mendiola said motorists from the south who are headed north on Beach Road should instead take As Perdido Road and proceed to Msgr. Martinez in As Lito, then to Dandan, and to Msgr. Guerrero in As Terlaje.
Mendiola said once school starts, there will be more pedestrians, mostly children, on the road so DPS will deploy more officers to ensure everyone’s safety.
