by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - There's good news for island motorists: starting Saturday morning, all permanent lanes will be open to traffic at the Barrigada Tri-Intersection.

Drivers can expect to breeze through the heavily-trafficked without having to wait their usual extended delay. Department of Public Works director Joanne Brown made the announcement today stressing the road is open but work continues on the friction course for the final pavement. She told KUAM News, "We're at least pleased at this point after what have been a long and winding process of addressing the construction at the tri-intersection that at least tomorrow at 10 o'clock we'll be able to open it up to all lanes."

In addition to the lanes opening, DPW will install new permanent steel signal lights in the next couple of weeks between Route 10 and Route 8 and between Happy Mart and the road leading to the Navy Golf Course. However, the $4,000,000 project did have its delays, many of which can be attributed to infrastructure issues and weather conditions.

Brown continued, "We're also too finding a number of these infrastructure lines are not set far enough or deep enough under the ground. In some cases, we found water lines that are only a few inches under the ground, so if we're simply doing a resurfacing of a road all of a sudden we have to deal with all infrastructure that is there versus if we have set standards, which to my understanding there are set standards, they're just not followed or implemented."

She says DPW is now issuing encroachment permits, which can require inspections so that if lines are being laid in our right of way, would prevent future projects to accrue additional costs or delays. An average one to two-lane road cost about a million dollars a mile. So moving forward, Brown says moving forward, the multi-million dollar question is when will they finally get the friction course materials?

"A lot of people think why isn't this happening," said the director. "Well, all the friction resource materials are imported into Guam and for many years they been able to provide the materials and pave the road and unfortunately we now have the ability to test the quality of what we're getting and we're finding what we're getting and what we should be getting are two different things."

Only two companies on Guam are working with DPW to address the asphalt challenges. Federal Highway Authority now requires the asphalt issue as part of the contractual agreements for road projects. Brown says although the opening will bring back some normalcy in the area, she advises the public to still be careful when driving through the tri-intersection as it is still a construction site and additional finishing work will be taking place.