Global Best Projects 2018
Award of Merit, Environmental: Regulatory Closure of Puerto Rico Dump & Construction of Eloy S. Inos Peace Park
By converting a dump into a park, the project turned one of Saipan’s biggest environmental problems into an asset.
PHOTO COURTESY GHD INC.
Puerto Rico Dump Closure and Eloy S. Inos Peace Park
Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands
Award of Merit
Owner Office of the Governor/Capital Improvements Program
Lead Design Firm, Civil, Structural and MEP Engineer GHD Inc.
General Contractor Black Micro Corp.
Engineer/CQA Geo-Logic Associates
Landscape Architect Belt Collins
Located immediately adjacent to the island of Saipan’s pristine western lagoon and tourist recreational areas, this project benefited the community by turning the unusable, dangerous and environmentally problematic 21-acre Puerto Rico Dump into a local park that celebrates peace. The steep slopes of the dump’s mound of waste and fill caused the material to occasionally cascade into the lagoon.
Mitigation work included waste relocation and installation of drainage, erosion control, a new final cover system and a passive landfill gas venting system. The design and regulatory oversight teams stretched across 10 time zones, but communication was facilitated through the use of an information management system to boost collaboration.
Though the project had a multitude of unknown site conditions that could have developed into claims, early consensus-building efforts between stakeholders and regulatory agencies prior to design led to successful completion.
