Road project bill OK’d

The U.S. House of Representatives and then the U.S. Senate passed yesterday a conference report to approve H.R. 3, the Transportation Legacy Act, which funds highways and other transportation projects for the entire country. President Bush is expected to sign the bill over the weekend.

The bill, which totals $286.4 billion over a six-year period, also provides approximately $6 million annually for regular CNMI roadway projects on Rota, Tinian and Saipan. A large part of the initial funding will go toward the Talofofo road project

“We have been working on this project for the past three years,” said Gov. Juan N. Babauta. “We are happy that we have finally been included.”

He said that almost $3 million of these regular funds would be used to continue the Route 100 roadway in Rota.

The Talofofo bridge project will link the existing roadway, which ends north of the Kingfisher golf links, with the southern end of the roadway at Marpi. The road will also include a bridge to replace the one destroyed by a typhoon in the early 1970s.

“This is a big accomplishment for the CNMI,” said Babauta. “We need to make critical investments in our infrastructure and with these funds we can complete some needed projects.

The administration had been spearheading the effort to ensure that the Talofofo road project was included in the highway bill for the past three years.

In early 2003, Babauta identified the Talofofo Roadway as the CNMI project to be included in an expected highway bill. CNMI projects have never been included in highway bills as the CNMI is not represented in Congress and regular allotment for projects are distributed by congressional district. In April 2003, the administration formally submitted details regarding its inclusion in the highway bill.

“We explained the economic opportunity that this project provides in opening up the northeast part of the island of Saipan and also appealed to the equity of our being included,” said Babauta, as he noted the CNMI not being included in previous efforts.

The governor met with transportation committee chair Don Young in mid-2003, and received support from the chairman that the project would be included in the next round of highway funding. For the next two years, the administration fought to ensure that the provision would remain part of the bill, even arranging a trip for congressional staffers who were briefed on the project and visited the site.

In late 2003 the CNMI was included in the initial highway bill that passed the House and Senate in the last session (2004) but that bill was not supported in conference and did not pass.

Babauta met with Young in December 2004 and sought his support for the next session (2005) and the Talofofo project was included when the bill passed the house in March 2005.

For the next four months, numerous meetings with congressional staff were held.

“We have worked very hard to ensure the project was included,” said Babauta.

This included staff meetings with committee members, including former CNMI Secretary of Labor and Immigration Mark Zacheres who is now senior counsel for the transportation committee. Early this month, Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente met with senior committee staff to encourage their support.

“Mark played a major role in this process,” said Benavente. “His participation was essential.”

The project faced further challenge in conference as funding levels were constantly targeted by other communities as they sought to increase their funding levels. (PR)