Upgrades at American Memorial Park

The National Park Service will be working on multiple projects to improve the infrastructure and grounds at American Memorial Park.

Visitors will be advised of temporary closures at specific locations as work proceeds on these projects. The projects will start in the next six to nine months. Project work will be scheduled to avoid interference with planned events whenever possible.

Culvert replacement: The rusted culvert and failing concrete headwalls will be replaced where the path from the parking lot to the ball fields crosses the constructed wetlands.

Court of Honor resurfacing: The circular upper plaza of the Court of Honor surrounding the flags will be resurfaced to improve drainage and visitor safety.

Micro Beach vegetation removal: The NPS has awarded a cooperative agreement to the Office of the Mayor of Saipan to finish removing vegetation damaged during Typhoon Soudelor. Once the project is underway, the park will engage the local community in a discussion of future plans for that area.

Walkway lighting: New solar powered bollard and overhead landscape lights will be installed along the edge of walkways in the Memorial Mall and Micro Beach areas. In preparation for the new lights, the park continues to remove damaged lights and recently replaced the lights at the Carillon Bell Tower with brighter low-wattage LED lights.

In addition, the park will be performing other work that may cause brief closures:

Restripe the visitor center parking lot including marking emergency lanes, bus and handicapped parking.

Repair and reset bollards along Micro Beach and Middle Roads.

Conduct a site investigation with soil sampling to determine the need for remediation of unexploded World War II ordnance based on a preliminary assessment last year.

For all of these projects, compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Policy Act has been completed by the National Park Service and CNMI permits for ground disturbance have been issued where appropriate. 

The total cost of these projects is approximately $670,000, which is in addition to the park’s annual appropriation from the National Park Service (approximately $1.6 million) for operation of the park.

For more information, contact Superintendent Barbara Alberti at 670-234-7207, Ext. 2020 or barbara_alberti@nps.gov. (NPS)