Ground was broken for the start of construction of the new Nitijela building earlier this month.
President Hilda Heine honored the leaders past and present who had used the previous Nitijela for decades. While she said the nation was saddened by the fire that destroyed the Nitijela in August, the government was moving ahead to deliver on its promise made in the days after the fire to construct a new building as quickly as possible.
The President was joined by representatives of the United States, Taiwan and Japan as well as landowners, Nitijela members and representatives of Pacific International Inc. that is building the facility.
The RMI Cabinet chose to rebuild a new Nitijela to the same design that opened in 1993. PII built the earlier facility and maintained both the blueprints and the “as built” drawings, streamlining the process for constructing the new Nitijela chamber building.
The United States and Taiwan governments are providing large amounts of funding for the new parliament.
The airport reservoir project was in final wrap up mode last week and earlier this week in preparation for a Wednesday handover ceremony between officials from Japan and the Marshall Islands.
The 11.5 million gallon new reservoir was funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and was officially handed over to the RMI government in a ceremony Wednesday this week at Katoj Park, which is adjacent to the reservoir.
It increases water storage for Majuro by over 30 percent on the current reservoir system near the airport. Japan contractor Dai Nippon Construction and consultant Yachiyo Engineering Co. Ltd. worked with RMI construction company Pacific International Inc. to build the new reservoir.
Another big RMI government project is also moving.
The airport terminal project is now in detailed design phase and PII is awaiting a green light to stockpile armor rock and fill material, according to PII construction manager Bobby Muller.
PII will perform significant landfill/land reclamation on the lagoon side of the parking lot area to create new space for a parking lot — as the “temporary” (and later to be domestic) terminal funded by the US and RMI, and the bigger new international terminal building funded by Japan will need the entire area of the existing buildings and the current parking lot.
PII is handling both the Nitijela and airport projects.