Excavations in major roads and thoroughfares on Saipan are mostly due to multiple wastewater lift stations that are undergoing upgrades, according to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.<\/p>\n
CUC deputy executive director William Gilmore said the utilities company is aware of the traffic its excavations have caused, but he asked for the public\u2019s patience as the lift station upgrades are necessary to improve the island\u2019s decades-old infrastructure. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are sensitive to the problems that had been caused by a lot these projects. We are sorry that the public has been inconvenienced,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The project on the corner of Chalan Monsignor Deleon Guerrero and Middle Road near the Payless Shoe Source are upgrades to the W4, W5, and W6 lift stations. That construction work has lately come under criticism as it has been ongoing for sometime now and inconveniences motorists. <\/p>\n
\u201cOn this project, we are trying to eliminate three for one lift station at that location. That means we are upsizing the pipes, deepening their location, adding a manhole for the corner, and [installing] a back-up generator,\u201d Gilmore said. \u201cThis reduces the number of lift stations we have to maintain.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pointed out that the older lift stations are not very efficient. \u201cThe old lift stations took a lot to maintain, were to close to the road, dangerous to work on, and that\u2019s why it makes more sense to consolidate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe contractor is getting to a point where they are going to be off the road by next week so we are happy about that. They are trying to get as much as they can finish by the end of the month,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the project at the corner of Garapan Elementary School is funded by casino operator Best Sunshine International, Ltd. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey agreed as part of their project since it is such a big facility\u2014 a casino and hotel project\u2014that they would put in a new\u2014we call S4\u2014lift station. It was originally on the street. Now it\u2019s on the side of the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe project is in a pause mode. What is currently built satisfies the casino. But once they start working on the hotel, then they will finish the entire project,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
According to Gilmore, the project near Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan was caused by a hole that collapsed seven months ago. That patch was fixed but someone drove over it so it collapsed again. <\/p>\n
\u201cGarapan has a problem, it has all those asbestos cement pipes that the Japanese put in some 40 years ago and they are at the end of their useful life so they\u2019re failing in a lot areas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo they are collapsing, and we needed to repair that whole length of road. There\u2019s going to be big improvement. We are putting in PVC pipes that are bigger. The good news is, it is almost finished and the target is next month,\u201d Gilmore added.<\/p>\n
He said the projects on major areas and road are indicators that progress is taking place. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt has not been ideal but it has worked out to a point where we are just glad that things are coming to an end on a lot of these projects. Now everyone\u2019s going to have access to their clients, to do business, and flow of traffic will be much improved and we will all be very happy when that happens,\u201d Gilmore said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Excavations in major roads and thoroughfares on Saipan are mostly due to multiple wastewater lift…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1707,256,1344,14619],"class_list":["post-258934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-best-sunshine-international","tag-casino","tag-garapan-elementary-school","tag-william-gilmore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258934","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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}