$147K islandwide road marking and signage project takes off

Pedestrians and motorists traversing the Beach Road and Microl intersection to the San Vicente traffic signal intersection will see improved road striping and traffic signage by October or earlier, as officials broke ground yesterday on a $147,280 islandwide road marking and signage upgrade project.

The Route 31-Chalan Monsignor Guerrero road marking and signage upgrade is one of six major projects of its kind to begin this month, Department of Public Works officials said.

This would also be the first time in a long while that major Saipan roads will receive this kind of improvement.

Lt. Gov. Jude U. Hofschneider said the project affirms the administration’s continuing efforts to see ways to “provide higher standards of safety to our motorists and pedestrians.”

“This is another good indication of our commitment to ensure that public funds are spent wisely for the benefit of our people,” said Hofschneider, reading Gov. Eloy S. Inos’ remarks at yesterday’s groundbreaking held in an area near the entrance to the Joeten Superstore, near Napa, in San Jose.

Joining the governor and lieutenant governor at the DPW ceremony were Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP), Saipan Mayor Donald Flores and Public Lands Secretary Pete A. Tenorio, press secretary Angel Demapan and DPW’s Technical Services Division director Ben Cabrera, among others. DPW Secretary Martin Sablan was off island.

As part of the ceremony, the governor and the Saipan mayor each tried their hand at operating a thermoplastic applicator—a road marking machine—to place bright, retro-reflective yellow road marking on a portion of the road across San Jose Mart. They did so with the help of RNV Construction personnel, and while other government officials and guests looked on.

Funding for the road improvement project came from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration.

RNV Construction, the project contractor, received the notice to proceed on March 19, and the estimated completion date is Oct. 23.

“In an effort to see more successes like these, we will continue to support infrastructure development throughout our villages by working to secure more funding opportunities to meet the needs of the Commonwealth,” the lieutenant governor added.

Sonya Dancoe, highway administrator and chief engineer at DPW, said the project will involve the replacement and rehabilitation of pavement markings, striping, crosswalks, painting of sidewalk curbs and paved medians, replacement and addition of traffic and directional signs, and the reconditioning of shoulders.

Dancoe said the CNMI receives some $3.2 million in federal road improvement projects.

She said islandwide road marking and signage upgrade is “long overdue.”

Dancoe also said DPW is moving on an “aggressive schedule” to make sure all federal highway funds are spent in the CNMI, rather than see any of those funds return to Washington, D.C. and redistributed.

With the project’s completion, visibility will be “significantly enhanced” to reduce if not eliminate road accidents, especially at night and when it is raining.

Other road marking and signage upgrade projects include the stretch of Beach Road from American Memorial Park to San Antonio; Middle Road or Chalan Pale Arnold from Navy Hill to the Chalan Kiya intersection; Dandan area, from the San Vicente intersection to the airport; and in As Perdido, along Chalan Tun Joaquin Doi.

Dancoe said this road project has been in the planning and development stages since 2012, as shown in the previous territorial transportation improvement plan.

DPW, under the Inos administration, has been moving a number of major highway projects. In August 2013, DPW broke ground on an over $4 million road improvement project from Kagman to Capital Hill after a two-year snag over procurement protests and appeals. During the same month, DPW held a groundbreaking for an almost $950,000 new traffic light signal system project in Chalan Kanoa.