{"id":327967,"date":"2020-08-11T06:02:05","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T20:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=327967"},"modified":"2020-08-11T06:02:05","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T20:02:05","slug":"road-paving-project-on-tinian-breaks-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/road-paving-project-on-tinian-breaks-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"Road-paving project on Tinian breaks ground"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Seabees assigned to U.S. Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3\u2019s Detail Tinian install a gable-end on a Southwest Asia hut being constructed on Camp Tinian. (MARCUS HENLEY)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Tinian Mayor\u2019s Office broke ground yesterday morning on a road-paving project at Marpo Heights II on Tinian, signaling the official start to a road-paving project that has been long awaited by residents in that area.<\/p>\n

Raena Pangelinan, project manager of Tinian Mayor\u2019s Office, said the project has been an ongoing discussion that has been in the works for the past 20 years, \u201cchallenged by funding availability and priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that past CNMI administrations and leadership have tried to tap several funding sources for this project, such as Federal Highway Administration, Capital Improvement Project, and Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Public Assistance Program, but were all unsuccessful. Finally, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, the Commonwealth Ports Authority, and the Tinian Leadership negotiated with the Divert Airfield project with the U.S. Department of Defense in 2018 to get the project done.<\/p>\n

The project will be executed by U.S. Naval Construction Battalions, better known as the Navy Seabees, of the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3 in collaboration with the Department of Public Works and the Pacific Engineering Group Services, and will be spearheaded and handled by the Tinian Mayor\u2019s Offices\u2019 Projects Management Division.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project currently doesn\u2019t have a deadline time frame at the moment due to COVID-19\u2019s restrictions and possible delays of materials and equipment being shipped into Tinian,\u201d said Pangelinan.<\/p>\n

Tinian Mayor Edwin Aldan said this project is unique as it is the first of its kind and is a collaboration of multiple government agencies spanning federal, state, and municipal levels. \u201cUnlike any other project in the CNMI to date\u2026this is a prime example of how the CNMI government and the Municipality of Tinian can partner with the Department of Defense for the benefit of our people,\u201d said Aldan. \u201cAnd as the Divert Airfield project is scheduled to start construction next year, we look forward to that project, as well as other IRT projects, being the catalyst to restart Tinian’s local economy by providing employment and business opportunities for our community.”<\/p>\n

Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, who attended the groundbreaking, recognized the importance of having a strong partnership between the U.S. Department of Defense and the Commonwealth, particularly with the Tinian residents who are most impacted by military-related activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited about the economic opportunities that will result from the divert project construction,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are the type of opportunities that the people of Tinian have long yearned for when two-thirds of Tinian was leased to the military. These opportunities can only come through a strong partnership with the Department of Defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

He promised that he and Gov. Ralph DLG Torres will continue to fight for more of these types of opportunities for Tinian. (Chevy Alipio)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tinian Mayor\u2019s Office broke ground yesterday morning on a road-paving project at Marpo Heights…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":327969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327967","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=327967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}