The Army Corps of Engineers is ready to guide the construction of a much-needed new hospital complex from start to finish. The head of the Honolulu District, which oversees Guam made that known during a stakeholder and press briefing today sponsored by Congressman Michael San Nicolas.

The first step, says Army Corps Lieutenant Colonel Eric Marshall, is to establish a charette - a planning group which brings together the key stakeholders to come up with the scope for the facility, based on the long term.

"The Corps of Engineers," he described, "one thing that we do really well. I'd even say that the Corps is best in show is planning. That's because we are an unbiased arbiter; we tend to have that kind of credibility that we're not going to come in with an agenda and we can kind of bring in multiple stakeholders together to try to come up with the optimum solution given the constraints at hand."

Congressman San Nicolas says he is working to secure $450,000 from the Interior Department, which is needed to be able to engage the Corps.

Chief of the Civil and Public Works Branch Rhiannon Kucharski says it's a key process that can take up to two years, adding, "You want to come out of that phase with a conceptual design, conceptual cost and benefit and a plan that allows you to move ahead to pre construction, engineering and design."

Guam governor Lou Leon Guerrero publicly stated preference is for a medical campus that incorporates a new hospital, public health, behavioral health and a veterans facility.

Program manager Don Slack says the charette will explore all the options. "We're going to be looking at what is it that our goal is and we'll be providing different options of how to get there. and those are explored and discussed and you end up with by consensus, this is the preferred option. And that option could be a campus or really we want to bring everything under one roof."

Colonel Marshall pitched that the Corps could also manage construction of the project and see that the plans are followed all the way to completion.

"Because we are moving in the process and we tend to kind of move the project forward, we're much focused on turning the dirt and cutting that ribbon at the end we tend to be a kind of stabilizing spince," he promised.

A 2019 Corps assessment found rebuilding the current Guam Memorial Hospital at the current site would cost more than $750 million. But a new facility at a new site would be cheaper.