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Completion of Saipan airport runway rehab pushed back
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Posted on Feb 09 2012
The rehabilitation of the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport’s main runway will take longer than expected due to problems that were found during actual construction work, according to the Commonwealth Ports Authority yesterday.
Funded by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Saipan runway project began in 2009. Its original target completion date was October 2011 but this was later revised to February 2012. Now the new deadline is June 2012. The project’s total cost is at $21 million to date.
According to CPA executive director Edward Deleon Guerrero, this project has been on hold since October 2011 because the materials available on Saipan do not meet FAA requirements and that 4-inch deep cracks were discovered in the middle of the runway.
CPA also found that the contractor, Guam Pacific Power Corp. Inc., has been following an obsolete design, which is about six years old.
“We need to clarify with FAA whether or not we can submit a modification to reduce [the materials] requirement because the materials we have on Saipan cannot reach the FAA requirement. So this stopped the project as well as the design used when the project was bid out,” he said. FAA eventually gave the green light to the modifications after a series of consultations.
Deleon Guerrero said all these problems have been addressed and construction will continue on Feb. 16. He said the new completion date is on June 3, 2012.
The airport’s main runway was first built 25 years ago.
