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Vendor for Beach Road Pathway lighting known 1st week of August
Marianas Visitors Authority will finally select the winning bidder for its much-awaited Saipan Beach Road Pathway lighting project in the first week of August, according to MVA Community Projects manager Martin Duenas.
Duenas said that MVA will soon meet with the Department of Public Works, which received 17 responses to the invitation to bid.
Duenas said the meeting will allow the vendors to present their proposals and see what is needed.
At their last board meeting on July 16, MVA managing director Perry Tenorio said the lighting project would take a total of 120 days to complete.
There are currently no functioning lights along the Beach Road Pathway. MVA said thieves have stripped many of the copper wires and improving the lighting in the pathway is one of the many destination enhancement projects that MVA is pushing to improve the island’s image to tourists.
SPDA Engineering, which is in charge of pushing the project forward, gave MVA updates at their board meeting in February 2015. It said an inventory was done for light fixtures from Kilili Beach/Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium to the American Memorial Park, Paseo de Marianas, and Bank of Saipan areas.
The company found that DPW was in charge of maintaining the lights and has access to all the electrical cabinets.
It also found that the pathway lights start from Kilili Beach and end at American Memorial Park near the fire station. It also branches out into Paseo de Marianas including the road from of Bank of Guam to Bank of Saipan in Garapan.
However, aside from the Beach Road Pathway lighting, the MVA board had also suggested lighting the palm trees in front of PDM.
MVA wants the project done in possibly six months, including the assessment, bidding, and construction of new path lights.
This project would also require maintenance and further involvement of MVA.
Tenorio asked lawmakers at a budget hearing in May that MVA needs $1.8 million to hire more staff for the projects it is undertaking.
The pathway lighting is one of three of MVA’s large destination enhancement projects. The two others are the complete renovation of Banzai Cliff and the Flower Island Project that seeks to rebrand the CNMI as a “Flower Island.”
