The U.S. National Defense Authorization Act authorizes $2 billion in spending for Guam in Fiscal Year 2025, with six key defense projects anticipated to be awarded this year.
About 100 Marines from Okinawa landed on Guam last December, forming the vanguard detachment tasked with laying the groundwork on Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz to ensure base facilities and infrastructure are adequately prepared to accommodate the arrival of follow-on forces beginning this year.
Camp Blaz, which has 58 active projects, will be home to 5,000 troops plus their dependents who will be relocated from Okinawa to Guam as part of a U.S.-Japan security treaty.
According to the Society of American Military Engineers Guam Post, more than $11 billion has already been allocated for military buildup projects related to the Marines’ relocation. Over the next 10 years, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is projected to allocate an additional $2 billion per year for the completion of the military buildup and subsequent maintenance requirements.
The DOD is also investing in upgrading port infrastructure to accommodate the anticipated deployment of more Navy ships to Guam.
Hawai‘i-based general contractor Healy Tibbitts Builders Inc. is targeting the completion of the Marianas Repair Lima Wharf project on U.S. Naval Base Guam this year.
Rick Heltzel, president of Healy Tibbitts, says the project constitutes new construction at Lima Wharf to provide 1,340 linear feet of berthing.
The $98-million project, which started in 2021, is being performed by H20 Guam JV, a joint venture between managing partner Healy Tibbitts Builders Inc., Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company Inc. and Obayashi Corp.
H20 Guam JV is also working on another Naval Base Guam project, “NAVFAC Marianas Repair Mike and November Wharves,” which launched in 2023 and is expected to be completed in 2026.
The $138-million contract calls for new construction at both Mike and November Wharves to provide 767 linear feet of berthing.
Heltzel says both are design-bid-build projects that will provide “critical berthing space for the expanding Navy repair and maintenance facility.
“These wharf projects provide modern ship berthing facilities to support the Navy’s Pacific defense mission,” Heltzel says. “The projects provide significant heavy construction resources and experience that will support future endeavors throughout Guam and the western Pacific region.”
Heltzel acknowledges Guam’s limitations and other external factors that slow down the contractors’ work pace.
“Providing qualified staff and skilled craft workers will be challenging given NAVFAC’s [Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command’s] significant increase in planned projects for the region and the competitive market for these workers,” he says. “Material supply chain issues are already affecting the current jobs and will likely increase with the forecast growth in work. Uncertainty with material pricing due to the pending new administration’s tariff policy is a major concern.”
Nan Inc., another Hawai‘i company undertaking large defense projects on Guam, looks forward to bidding on more work on the horizon as the U.S. military expands its presence in the region.
“Nan Inc. will be actively participating in the bidding of all the available projects in Guam and hoping that we will win some of those projects,” says Satish Kakkera, Nan Inc.’s project engineer.
On Sept. 11, 2024, NAVFAC Pacific awarded a $100-million firm-fixed-price task order under a multiple award construction contract to Nan Inc. for the construction of artillery battery facilities at Camp Blaz.
The facilities will support infantry battalions assigned to the III Marine Expeditionary Force and will include a low-rise company battery headquarters, automotive organizational shop, heavy gun shop storage building and a vehicle holding shed. The project is expected to be completed in March 2027.
However, completing — or even kickstarting — a project on Guam is not a walk in the park. Kakkera says contractors typically face delays in obtaining permits from the Guam Environmental Protection Agency (GEPA).
“The contractor cannot start any work at the project site without the GEPA permit,” he says. “The Guam EPA is taking almost four to six months to issue the permit and it causes significant delay to the project schedule.”
Nan Inc. is also working in a joint venture with Tutor Perini Corp. on a $330.6- million NAVFAC contract to rehabilitate the Apra Harbor Waterfront, one of the defense facilities heavily damaged by Super Typhoon Mawar on May 24, 2023.
“This is a design-build construction project to repair Guam harbor’s glass breakwater and restore and modernize waterfront areas that have been physically eroded and damaged from storms,” according to a press release from Tutor Perini following the contract’s award on Oct. 31, 2024.
The work includes repairs to the three most critically failed portions of the glass breakwater to minimize future breaching potential of the breakwater. “The contract includes nine options for additional anticipated scopes of work that, if exercised, could increase the total contract value by up to an additional $230 million,” Tutor Perini stated in its press release.
In a joint venture with Alabama’s Caddell Construction Co. LLC, Nan Inc. is also building a two-story education center at Camp Blaz. NAVFAC awarded the $44-million contract to Caddell-Nan JV on May 2, 2024, for the project that is targeted for completion in May 2026. According to NAVFAC’s contract award announcement last year, the facility’s design includes an academic instruction facility, a family service center, library, education services office, common areas and incidental related work.
Besides the long wait for the GEPA permit, Kakkera says another cause of delay is associated with the shipment of major electrical and HVAC equipment ordered offshore. “Once the products are approved by the government/owner, it takes 40 to 50 weeks for the product to be delivered,” he says.
Kakkera says the company strategizes its process to adjust to the situation. “We are being proactive and start providing the material submittals to the government as early as possible for the approval, so that the product arrives on-time,” he says.
A limited pool of subcontractors in Guam is another issue that the contractors are facing. “There is so much work going on and the [general] contractors have to choose the same subcontractor for many projects, and it will be hard for the subcontractors to handle all of these projects at a time,” Kakkera says.
