PRESS RELEASE
On Friday, October 12, 2007, the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) held a dedication ceremony for the newly built RMI International Convention Center. The 1,000-seat capacity facility was donated by the Government of the Republic of China-Taiwan (ROC) to the RMI to host the second annual Taiwan-Pacific Allies Summit of the Heads of State from the RMI, ROC, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu.
In the above photo left-hand ROC President Chen Shui-bien is addressing the dignitaries and guests attending the ceremony. In the right-hand photo, RMI President Kessai H. Note is receiving the ceremonial key from President Chen symbolizing the gift of friendship from the Taiwanese people to the Marshallese people.
The leading Marshallese general contractor based in Majuro, Pacific International, Inc. (PII) was the prime contractor for the project. For PII, this was an especially challenging project not because it was a particularly complicated building but because the construction schedule was effectively compressed from what would’ve been the normal timeframe of 14 months after engineered drawings to 8 months including design and engineering. This meant barely 6 months of actual construction but this was necessary to meet the deadline for the preparations for the Leader’s Summit meeting, which was actually held right after the dedication ceremony.
The project was initially tendered out in November 2006 but the bids submitted by PII and another off-island contractor exceeded the construction budget, which was a lump sum special grant from ROC. This was understandable because the project didn’t have a detailed design at the time of bid but called for a 37,000 square foot building. The RMI then opted in January 2007 to sole-source PII on a design-build basis with the basic instruction to turn-key the building complete with all loose furnishings for immediate occupation by October 10, 2007. When the Notice to Proceed was given on February 16, 2007, PII literally hit the ground running by air freighting in steel plates to fabricate imbedded items for the pre-casting of concrete columns and beams. The lead time to have procured such materials by shipping would have delayed the project and in several instances a number of long-lead items had to be flown in. The second floor slabs were made out of Waffle-Cretepre-cast system (www.waffle-crete.com). The time savings realized is from not having to do form work and supports for pouring in place. Basically floor slabs were constructed in advance and placed on concrete beams as they were completed.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the project took place on March 11, 2007. After that the construction crew worked 24 hours a day nonstop every week without any serious incident. With creative multi-tasking by the entire PII team, the work on the convention building was constant without any letup. At its busiest point, PII had over 200 workers assigned to the project of which 60% were new hires mostly from the local workforce.
If that wasn’t challenging enough, PII had to apply diligent value-engineering and cost-efficient methodologies because the total budget had a ceiling of $4.9 million, which covered design and engineering, all civil works, interior finishing, all mechanical/electrical equipment, electronic systems, and all loose furnishings. In the end PII completed the project without delay and on budget.
The convention center is truly one of its kind in the Marshall Islands. The main convention hall has 22 foot high movable partitions so that it can be divided into 3 separate halls. The main lobby has 4 concession room and 2 conference rooms. On the second floor are a VIP lounge, additional meeting rooms and a dining area that’s equipped with a catering/preparation room.
PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL INC.Majuro (Headquarters Office)
P.O. Box 6, Majuro, Marshall Islands 96960
Tel. (692) 625-3122/5316/3560 Fax (692) 625-3348/3476
Email: webmaster@piimajuro.com
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