Kagman paving nearly done; more funding needed for full pavement

Hawaiian Rock is close to completing the first phase of the Kagman III road paving project that broke ground five months ago.

Hawaiian Rock employees, followed by Department of Public Works employees, get ready to pave a portion of Pine Drive and a portion of Pepega Avenue near Tank Beach. (Jayson Camacho)

According to Rep. Lorenzo Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan), Hawaiian Rock only paved a portion of the Pine Drive area, near Tank Beach, leading to Pepega Avenue, eventually intersecting with Chopak Drive.

Chopak Drive has already been fully paved, including Mangga Street and Katbun Road in San Vicente as well.

“The reason why they are paving only a portion of Pine Drive is because the intersection of Pine Drive and a portion of Pepega Avenue leads to an intersection with Chopak Drive that eventually reaches the main highway,” he said.

This is part of change order 1. One other part of the change order will pave a portion of Pine Drive that connects to Chopak Drive and intersects with Forbidden Island Road. The change order totals $58,000.

“More funding is required, however. We still need to secure funding for additional paving of Pine Drive. We will continue to do that and use previous appropriations from the $600,000 that we got from the 18th CNMI Legislature,” he said.

The funding for the road-paving projects was made possible after Gov. Eloy S. Inos signed a local law in July 2014 appropriating more than $2.17 million in bond funds for Saipan projects. Of the $2.17 million, $600,000 went to the Precinct 5 road-paving project.

Aside from the road paving, a problem with Chopak Drive has occurred where the road heads downhill and runoff carries large rocks and gravel into the road.

“We are going to address that. We have a change order for that and it is the continuation of the paving project that we will be identifying to rectify the runoff,” said Deleon Guerrero.

As for other Precinct 5 projects, Kannat Tabla might see some paving being done soon, if the U.S Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration’s Hawaii Federal-Aid Division provides funding for the Kannat Tabla Drive.

Deleon Guerrero sent a letter to Hawaii Federal-Aid Division under DOT, requesting funding for the asphalt paving and drainage construction of Kannat Tabla Drive.

Mayela Sosa, division administrator, replied, saying that Kannat Tabla Drive is not a route and not a federal-aid highway route and the CNMI Department of Public Works must designate the highway as such before federal funding could be made available.

“DPW has the procedure and guidelines to request road classification to federal highway road system. This way we can have funding available for that,” Deleon Guerrero said.