The southbound lane of Beach Road in San Jose is still undergoing construction.
THE construction of Beach Road on Saipan is expected to be completed in October 2024, Department of Public Works Secretary Ray N. Yumul said.
During a press conference, he provided an update on the ongoing $19.7 million Beach Road improvement project, which broke ground in February last year. Funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation-Federal Highway Administration, the project involves a 2.2-mile road from the As Perdido Road intersection in Chalan Piao to the Atkins Kroll intersection in San Jose.
Gov. Arnold I. Palacios commended officials and staff of DPW, the Office of Planning and Development and the Capital Improvement Project office for their hard work. “They really have done a tremendous job in identifying funds to get each road repaired and repaved,” Palacios said.
He noted that the road project also includes drainage system construction, power poles and wastewater system relocation. It took a lot of effort on the part of OPD Director and CIP Administrator Elizabeth Balajadia, PE, DPW Secretary Yumul and DPW Highway Engineer Henry Bautista “to get all these things going,” the governor said.
He also commended Northern Marianas Housing Corp. officials for securing federal funding for the construction of the three-mile northern stretch of Beach Road from Atkins Kroll intersection to Micro Beach Road at American Memorial Park, which is also an ongoing project.
The contractor of the Beach Road improvement project is GPPC Inc.
Yumul said an update “is something I want to push out to the community. We want to make sure that the timeline is reasonable and realistic so that the driving community will be able to anticipate where the traffic congestion is going to be at, and where traffic can flow faster because the paving is completed.”
He said the asphalt paving of the road from the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium to the Civic Center should be completed by April 15. Between March 30 and May 30, GPPC is scheduled to work on the portion of the road from the Atkins Kroll intersection to Ada gym, Yumul said. He noted that the construction of a drainage system in the shoreline area of the road is now ongoing.
The timeline for the construction and asphalt paving of the portion of the road from Civic Center to Saipan Community School is from April 18 to May 25; the timeline for the road from Saipan Community School to Great Harvest in Chalan Kanoa is from May 25 to June 25; and the timeline for the last section, from Great Harvest to Hopwood Middle School in Chalan Piao, is from June 25 to July 25.
Yumul said they are looking at the completion of the entire project by October 2024.
