The Saipan airport\u2019s runway lighting system will be replaced with a new one in early 2017, according to the Commonwealth Ports Authority.<\/p>\n
Orders for the replacement runway lights have already been placed and are expected to arrive by mid-February 2017, according to newly appointed CPA executive director Chris Tenorio.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have just signed a contract with a vendor, so we have placed the orders for all the lights and materials. It should be in by mid-February or even earlier. Once it arrives, our [electricians] will start working on it,\u201d said Tenorio.<\/p>\n
According to Tenorio, the cost of materials alone is estimated at $150,000 but costs would be kept to a minimum because an on-board master electrician would handle the installation of the lights.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, we have no exact amount for how much it would cost to replace [the whole system],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The runway of the Francisco C. Ada-Saipan International Airport would be running even during the installation of the new lights, said Tenorio.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to be working on replacing the lights during down time, [when] there are no active flights so that it does not hamper airport operations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Saipan airport runway\u2019s down time is usually between 5pm and 12am. <\/p>\n
CPA board member and airport facilities committee chair Barrie Toves wished for the materials to come sooner, but was satisfied with the placement of the order.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked them if they could find a way to expedite the materials for sooner arrival. My concern there is because we don\u2019t want another shutdown of the runway. I am pretty much satisfied that they have already placed the orders,\u201d said Toves.<\/p>\n
The Saipan airport\u2019s runway lights became inoperable thrice\u2014on Aug. 5, Sept. 22, and Nov. 4\u2014causing multiple flights to be pushed back by a few hours or more. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Saipan airport\u2019s runway lighting system will be replaced with a new one in early…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[7332,6602,1198,124],"class_list":["post-243227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-barrie-toves","tag-chris-tenorio","tag-commonwealth-ports-authority","tag-cpa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}