By Shaina Marie Santos, Joint Region Marianas Public Affairs
(From left to right) Lt. Travis Brinkman, officer-in-charge, NMCB 1 Det. Guam; CE1 (SCW) Ruben Romeo, NMCB 1 Det. Guam; Capt. Andy Anderson, commanding officer, U.S. Naval Base Guam; Capt. Glenn Shephard, commanding officer, NAVFAC Marianas; and Cmdr. Thomas Gorey, executive officer, USS Frank Cable (AS 40), mark the completion of a pure water tanker shelter project at Polaris Point in Piti, Guam, July 24. U.S. Navy photos by Shaina Marie Santos
Seabees on Guam gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the completion of a pure water tanker shelter project at Polaris Point in Piti, Guam, July 24.
The project broke ground in December 2012 and was completed July 11. The total cost to Commander, Naval Installations Command to construct the facility was $530,000, saving the Department of Defense a total of $730,000, based on an estimated $1.2 million cost for a private contractor. The shelter can hold up to four pure water tankers, which have an estimated cost of $700,000 each.
Capt. Andy Anderson, commanding officer, U.S. Naval Base Guam, said the project's completion could not have come at a better time, with Guam's rainy season taking hold of the island.
Lt. Travis Brinkman, officer-in-charge, NMCB 1 Det. Guam, offers remarks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Polaris Point in Piti, Guam, July 24. The ceremony commemorated the completion of a pure water tanker shelter which will be used to store demineralized water tankers and polishing trailers.
"The rainy season is here," Anderson said. "You're looking at over a million dollars' worth of equipment that's currently located within this building. To be able to get it out of the environment is absolutely critical to providing the pure water needs for the submarines, as well as SUBRON [Submarine Squadron] 15 and the units that operate out of Naval Base Guam.
The shelter, a reinforced concrete facility, features two electric, manual roll-up garage doors able to withstand winds up to 170 mph. It will also store demineralized water tankers and polishing trailers.
"If they were outside, they'd be getting rained on, which causes more corrosion and they'd also be in the baking, hot sun in the UV radiation which also deteriorates the steel and the components," said Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Marianas Construction Management Engineer Lt. j.g. Andrei Negoita. "Just as importantly, if not more so, whenever we have a storm or typhoon, the shelter for these tanker trailers keeps them operational saves them during a storm otherwise you could have a rock or projectile that damages them."
Capt. Glenn Shephard, commanding officer, NAVFAC Marianas, thanked Naval Mobile Construction Battalions (NMCBs) 1, 11 and 74, as well as the Army's 84th Engineering Battalion, for their hard work and dedication that brought the project from design to completion.
"This is a great contributory support project, something that we haven't been able to do on the Seabee side for a long time," Shephard said. "It's good to see Seabees and other engineers contribute to this. This is not an easy task, to construct a facility like this."
A pure water tanker shelter is ready for use at Polaris Point in Piti, Guam, July 24. The shelter, a reinforced concrete facility features two electric, manual roll-up garage doors able to withstand winds up to 170 mph, and will store demineralized water tankers and polishing trailers.