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FOR BEACH ROAD AND QUARTERMASTER INTERSECTION
Traffic light project breaks ground
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Posted on Jun 11 2021
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, seventh from left, Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider, House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez, Department of Public Works Secretary James A. Ada, other members of the Legislature, and DPW staff break ground on a streetlight project across the Beach Road and Quartermaster Road intersection yesterday morning. (JOSHUA SANTOS)
A $1.94-million project to install traffic lights at the accident-prone intersection of Beach Road and Quartermaster Road in Chalan Laulau broke ground yesterday, with the project expected to be finished in about seven months.
The project’s contractor, USA Fanter Corp. Ltd., received its notice to proceed on the project on June 1. The $1,945,638 project has a completion date of January 26, 2022, and is fully funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration.
In his remarks, Palacios thanked the Department of Public Works for “finally getting this done” and recalled how Gov. Ralph DLG Torres asked him around six or seven months ago what he could do to expedite some of these improvement projects. Palacios said the Beach Road and Quartermaster intersection project was “one of the projects that I felt could be done very expeditiously.”
Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian) spoke of the importance of making coordination between the Legislature and the Torres-Palacios administration as seamless as possible, and looks forward to what infrastructure project comes next.
House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) spoke of the project’s role in improving the driving experience that Beach Road offers to many in the community and tourists alike.
“We can see that [the Beach and Quartermaster intersection] is a busy place for motorists and a hotspot for accidents. This is a…much-needed project,” said Villagomez.
Next up will be a groundbreaking ceremony for an improvement project along Route 36, improving the span of road from Kingfisher to Bird Island in Talofofo.
In an interview with Torres, he explained that the recent burst in infrastructure projects have actually been in the works for quite some time and have only come to fruition after undergoing lengthy processes.
“A lot of these projects are not just [the product of] a year’s work. There’s quite a long, lengthy process. …Department of Public Works and other agencies have been working really hard, and now you’re seeing all this hard work that’s been happening throughout the years,” said Torres.
