Fluor finally bags work in Mariana Islands

Fluor Corp. of Irving, Texas announced April 11 CHamoru Standard Time that the U.S. Air Force Installation Contracting Agency awarded the company a task order contract for Pavement and Transportation Support for North Field in Tinian.

“The task order was awarded under the Air Force Contract Augmentation Program V. The cost-plus, fixed-fee task order has a 60-month period of performance and is valued at approximately $409 million,” Fluor said in a release.

Aerial shot of the four abandoned runways at the North Field on Tinian.

According to Journal files, Fluor was awarded the Guam Base Operating Support services contract in 2017. In 2018 the U.S. Court of Federal Claims upheld DZSP 21’s protest of the award. DZSP would go on to secure the contract.

North Field is famous as the launch runway for planes carrying atomic bombs to drop on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. The bomb pits are still at the site and have been a draw to U.S. veterans and their families and tourists.

North Field was neglected for many years, adding an eerie quality to the site. The Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers, or RED HORSE has been clearing the area. mbj

Sinlaku exposes fragile NMI supply chains already strained before super typhoon

Even before Super Typhoon Sinlaku battered the Northern Mariana Islands and disrupted fragile supply chains, businesses across the islands were already struggling with rising costs of doing business, especially with surging fuel and utility charges, worker shortages, and the general difficulty of obtaining imported products, not to mention shipping delays due to competition with the enormous tonnage of disaster aid coming to the islands.

Fluor finally bags work in Mariana Islands