Guam approves port modernization plan

Guam approves port modernization plan Guam Gov. Felix Camacho has signed into law a legislative bill allowing the Port Authority of Guam to move forward with a $195 million modernization plan of the island nation's commercial port.
   However, a provision in the new law requires port officials to produce a financial feasibility study and an economic impact assessment of the plan to the state legislature before the port can move forward with the plan's various projects. Legislators said last week the provision was necessary to assure that the modernization plan, which calls for most funds to come from federal sources, is realistic.
   The plan includes expansion and improvement projects considered critical for the port to be able to handle a projected influx of goods when the U.S. military begins a four-year program to transfer more than 8,000 military personnel from Okinawa to Guam by 2014. The transfer, set to begin in 2010, could nearly double the amount of cargo moving through the small port.
   The modernization plan was developed under a port contract by consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff International.