SAYING she was surprised at the level of improvement found at the Port Authority of Guam, PAG General Manager Mary Torres yesterday gave her first report to the Guam Chamber of Commerce during the group’s membership meeting at the Sheraton Laguna Guam Resort.

Torres was, until five weeks ago, the Guam Airport Authority general manager, and she did slip an “airport” into her narrative a couple of times, but laughed and said she is getting used to the fact that she is piloting a ship facility now, not an airport.

Speaking to an audience of people who understand better than most just how vital Guam’s sea port is to the island’s economy, Torres said one of the most interesting things she found coming into the picture was just how many projects and plans are in place to improve and modernize the port.

“I had the impression of things being really dead in the water,” she said, due to the slowdown in military buildup funding. “What I found instead was an agency that truly has a vision and that has had to go full steam ahead ... to not be the choke point in the military buildup.”

So while the planned $270 million Port Modernization Plan has been delayed, there are still many good things happening to upgrade and improve the port through which virtually all of Guam’s materials and supplies come.

Tiger grant

She said on March 19, the Port applied for a Tiger IV discretionary grant of $20.7 million to undertake what she called “upland area” improvements, including to the container yard, break bulk cargo area, operations facility, and “inbound/outbound optical character recognition” canopies.

The Port also recently broke ground on a container yard lighting upgrade and is in final negotiation for three POLA cranes they are required to purchase under public law. Marina facilities are also being upgraded and improved in Hagåtña and Agat, and the Port is prepared to spend upwards of $15 million to achieve what she called a “service life extension” of 10 to 15 years for risk mitigation at the deteriorating Wharf F5, which has suffered earthquake damage and is crumbling steadily.

Asked what would happen if the shaky wharf actually collapses, Torres said she thinks that is unlikely. “I’ve had some feedback from our engineers who went in and reassessed the most recent inspection in January that was held after the earthquake, and under present day normal use of the wharf there is no risk of that occurring.” She added that whatever risk there is would be tied to a major seismic event happening. Guam did have such an event in 1993, but Torres said engineers assured her the possibility of a complete collapse of F5 is “very remote” and that a complete re-build could cost up to $200 million – money which the Port Authority doesn’t have.