FAA funds Majuro airport work for runway and more

BY GIFF JOHNSON
Marshall Islands Correspondent

 MAJURO, Marshall Islands — U.S. and Marshall Islands government officials joined with contractor Pacific International Inc. to break ground for a new, two-year nearly $38 million airport improvement project in Majuro.

The large-scale airport paving and improvement project funded by the Federal Aviation Administration is expected to get underway in late July or early August, according to contractor Pacific International Inc.

 The groundbreaking was held May 15. Joining Marshall Islands President Hilda C. Heine, Minister of Transportation Hilton Kendall, and Ports Authority General Manager Thomas Maddison was U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Antone Greubel, and contractor CEO Joseph “Jerry Kramer,” his son PII Shop and Equipment Fleet Manager Daniel Kramer, and landowners joined in the groundbreaking ceremony.

Since early this year, PII has been mobilizing its equipment and facilities in anticipation of the airport work. In March, a vessel chartered by PII brought in 30,000 tons of aggregate from the Philippines. The imported aggregate was needed to meet FAA standards for the repaving.

A large asphalt plant has been set up a mile to the west of the airport runway, at a PII rock crushing quarry.  A fleet of new trucks, paving equipment and other heavy equipment was imported by PII to facilitate the project. PII has also brought in dozens of skilled workers for the work that is the latest project to be funded by the Federal Aviation Administration.
 

    
Heavy outmigration of Marshall Islanders to the U.S.  has forced most local contractors in the country to rely more and more on outside skilled workers, mostly imported from the Philippines. The advent of Nauru Airlines service connecting Majuro with Palau has also facilitated bringing in skilled workers from the Philippines, who by traveling this route can avoid the requirement and bottleneck of a U.S. visa to transit through Guam.
      
The airport project is primarily focused on rehabilitating and resurfacing the 7,200-foot runway at Amata Kabua International Airport. “This rehabilitation work will help ensure the Marshall Islands remains a key gateway to the broader Pacific and beyond,” the US Embassy said in a statement about the project. The airport in Majuro in addition to servicing regularly scheduled United Airlines, Air Marshall Islands and Nauru Airlines flights, is also an airport of choice for refueling by aircraft being ferried between the U.S.and Asia. The ferry flights can number as many as 10 per week.
 
Since 2004, the FAA has provided the Marshall Islands more than $100 million in Airport Improvement Program grant funds. These grants enabled the Ports Authority to rehabilitate the runway in 2005, construct a fire-fighting building, improve the runway safety area, and acquire a new Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting Vehicle. 

Under the newly negotiated Compact of Free Association’s Federal Programs and Services Agreement, the FAA will continue to provide the technical, navigational, flight inspections, and airspace services that are required for the airport’s international accreditation, along with ongoing access to funding under the Airport Improvement Program.

Maddison said the work is divided into a two-year period, with $21.4 million for phase one, and an additional $16 million for 2025. The contract amount is $34 million, with $4 million for project managed costs. mbj