{"id":328552,"date":"2020-08-24T06:02:02","date_gmt":"2020-08-23T20:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=328552"},"modified":"2020-08-24T06:02:02","modified_gmt":"2020-08-23T20:02:02","slug":"cota-breaks-ground-on-administrative-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cota-breaks-ground-on-administrative-building\/","title":{"rendered":"COTA breaks ground on administrative building"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Commonwealth Office of Transit Authority broke ground last Thursday in Lower Base to lay the foundations for its new administrative building and maintenance facility.<\/p>\n

According to special assistant for Public Transportation Alfreda P. Camacho, COTA worked with the Office of the Governor\u2019s grants management team to put together a grant application with the Federal Transit Administration under the U.S. Department of Transportation for $6.38 million. Camacho says this grant will fund the construction of the entire building, along with the purchase of 12 buses and 30 prefabricated bus shelters not only for Saipan, but also on Rota and Tinian.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a home base means so much. It solidifies the efforts that we have put in the last nine years and, to finally see a building is a testament to show that public transportation isn\u2019t going anywhere. We\u2019re here to stay for the CNMI,\u201d said Camacho. She related that COTA only had two drivers nine years ago, in 2011, but now has 20 operations personnel.<\/p>\n

The proposed completion date for the building is Oct. 2, 2021, but Camacho urged cautious optimism about this date, considering that the upcoming months are considered \u201ctyphoon season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Alfreda P. Camacho of the Commonwealth Office of Transit Authority, eighth from left, and Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, ninth from left, joins other officials for the groundbreaking ceremony for the COTA office building last Aug. 20 in Lower Base, Tanapag.
(JUSTINE NAUTA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t tell, given it is typhoon season right now, [but] we\u2019re hopeful that\u2026with the partnership that we have with Department of Public Works, RNV [Construction] who are the contractors, and GHD Inc. who is our construction management team, I know that they will do their very best to ensure that the completion date is followed,\u201d said Camacho.<\/p>\n

According to GHD Inc. Saipan\u2019s office manager Andre A. Tenorio, the maintenance facility will include an integral maintenance bay with two maintenance bays and one service bay, a backup generator, a water tank with a non-potable water, washing area for buses, parking spaces, site lighting, site security fencing, etc.<\/p>\n

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios closed the ceremony by applauding COTA for its hard work and determination for being around when the CNMI needs it the most. \u201cWhen the pandemic hit Saipan…nobody wanted to be around anybody. Yet our drivers took that lead, that risk\u2026and they continue to sacrifice their lives every day,\u201d said Torres. \u201cThis is not just transport. You don\u2019t just call and say I need a ride. There\u2019s more to it. We want to make sure you\u2019re secured when they drive for you, that when my mom calls COTA, I know that she\u2019s being transported the right way, and the safe way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Commonwealth Office of Transit Authority broke ground last Thursday in Lower Base to lay…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":328553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[460],"class_list":["post-328552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cota"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328552","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}