{"id":27283,"date":"2014-02-11T09:57:36","date_gmt":"2014-02-11T01:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newspaper2.ctsi-logistics.com\/?p=27283"},"modified":"2014-02-11T09:57:36","modified_gmt":"2014-02-11T01:57:36","slug":"saipan-tinian-ferry-feasibility-study-contractor-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/saipan-tinian-ferry-feasibility-study-contractor-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Saipan-Tinian ferry feasibility study contractor this week"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Commonwealth<\/a>
Commonwealth Office of Transit Authority special assistant Thomas J. Camacho shows reporters the proposed routes for a planned public bus system expected to kick off this year, after making a presentation at a closed-door Cabinet meeting yesterday. (Haidee V. Eugenio)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even as the \u201cfixed\u201d and flexible\u201d bus system is expected to take off before the end of the year, the winning off-island bidder for the long-awaited study to determine the feasibility of a Saipan-Tinian ferry system will be known this week, Commonwealth Office of Transit Authority special assistant Thomas J. Camacho said yesterday.<\/p>\n

Funding for this Saipan-Tinian ferry service feasibility study is $175,000 from the Federal Highway Administration, with the CNMI Department of Public Works as the administering agency in partnership with COTA.<\/p>\n

Camacho updated Cabinet members about the public bus transportation system, including the proposed routes on Saipan, and other transportation-related developments during a closed-door meeting yesterday morning.<\/p>\n

Gov. Eloy S. Inos separately said yesterday that as soon as the bus system proves feasible, the program would be expanded and the routes would be increased.<\/p>\n

After the over three-hour Cabinet meeting, Camacho also told reporters about the selection later this week of the winning bidder for the Saipan-Tinian ferry feasibility study.<\/p>\n

He said the two entities that responded to the request for proposals are from the U.S. mainland.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe completed the final phase of the evaluation process so this week, we\u2019re looking at selecting one of the two bidders for the Saipan-Tinian-Saipan ferry system feasibility study,\u201d Camacho said.<\/p>\n

Once picked, the contractor, he said, will have about half-year to conduct and present the study that will determine the viability or feasibility of a Saipan-Tinian ferry service.<\/p>\n

This means before the end of 2014, the government would already know whether to pursue or not a ferry service between Saipan and Tinian, years after a privately-owned and operated ferry service shut down.<\/p>\n

Camacho said a Guam-Rota ferry service feasibility study will be a separate one, because they are two separate jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

If the study reveals the viability of a Saipan-Tinian ferry service, then COTA will take the recommendations and start working on the terminal and related facilities, ferry boat design and operations, which he said would become a government and private partnership. A private firm, for example, could take over the actual operations of the ferry.<\/p>\n

Besides federal funding, the government may also implement certain taxes to help subsidize the ferry service.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that the study would recommend an auto-passenger ferry so we can bring vehicles back and forth. It\u2019s an option for people,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He said the government cannot pursue a ferry service without a feasibility study.<\/p>\n

\u201cA super ferry in Hawaii it flopped because there was no study really done, no impact study,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even as the \u201cfixed\u201d and flexible\u201d bus system is expected to take off before the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":27285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[54,26,67,44],"class_list":["post-27283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-agency","tag-cnmi","tag-people","tag-study"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27283","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\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}