Waking The Sleeping Giant

The key to wakening the giant is completion of the so-called "Compact Road," a 53-mile sealed road that will for the first time open much of Babeldaob to development. The road project is an engineering marvel, much delayed, that will cost $149 million by the time it is completed in June 2006. Much of the funding has been through the U.S.-Palau Compact of Free Association, which defines political and financial relations between Koror and Washington. It was because of the funding source that the road got the moniker of the "Compact Road."

As road crews push to complete this difficult project-in places, engineers have had to fill gullies that are as deep as tree-top level to allow the road to proceed-expectations are already running high in Palau about the Compact Road's economic impact on the republic.

"I think right now people's expectations are rather high-not so much that the road is going to contribute economically-rather that it will happen quickly," says Lelani Reklai, executive director of the Belau Tourism Association and owner of PRA, Computer Sales & Services.

"What people are really concerned about is new investment. If we want to wake up the giant, we're talking about new investment and that's not going to happen between now and five years from now. It takes time for local people to put together the capital," says Reklai. "If you're talking about foreign investors, again you're talking about a timetable between one to three years. What's good is the view that everything is not closed or restricted-there's still an open window here for expansion and for new business opportunities."

The Palau Compact Road is an engineering marvel. Photo: Floyd K. Takeuchi

Sam Scott, president of well known dive operator Sam's Tours, says while the road will allow development to occur, "I just hope everybody can see the light and do the right kind of sustainable development. We don't want another (Guam) Tumon Bay. If we could build places like PPR (Palau Pacific Resort) and mom and pop bungalows and have more cultural development-something Palauans can take part in-that would be good."

"The opening of the Compact Road is going to influence a lot of people-who left to look for opportunities in Koror or overseas-to come back to their own states in Babeldaob," says Glenn Seid, the president of Palau-based MidCorp, "With the road under construction we're starting to see people coming back to build homes and develop their property. The people are very land rich in Babeldaob. They have land that's just sitting there and they want to develop it. This is their chance since Palau is just getting better economically."

MidCorp is trying to put together an 18-hole golf course project for Babeldaob, which would be the first golf course in Palau. The project could be expanded to include a timeshare development.

While June 2006 is the current target date for completion, the road project could take longer. Babeldaob's thick clay soil has proven to be a nightmare, and road crews have taken to placing blue tarps on recently graded portions to try to dry it out in Palau's humid, often rainy weather.

The sealed road is being built by South Korea-based Daewoo Engineering and Contracting Company Ltd, working under a contract administered by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. About 40 percent of the road was built through virgin jungle. Environmental issues, archeological features, live ordinance, basic logistics and communications and a law suit all upped the challenges faced.

Keith Mitzkewich, an Army Corps engineer, says, "the standards in terms of compaction, material, asphalt, sight distances, gradients, made the undertaking more difficult because they involved cutting deeper into hillsides and filling in more valleys. It meant we used environmental laws and regulations, just as we would back in the U.S.

"The sub grade layer of the road varies greatly," says Mitzkewich. "It can go from a meter up to the height of some of the hills. Some parts of the road had to have significant fill conditions. The highest fill is about 100 feet-as tall as most of the trees here-some of the road is actually at treetop elevation.

"We found numerous historical and archeological items," adds Mitzkewich, "everything from helmets, pieces of equipment and graves from World War II to portions of old stone paths that people didn't realize were there."

A full time archeologist coordinated the findings with Palau's Department of Cultural Affairs. Encountering mangrove areas, terraces, stone paths and endangered species meant delays pending procedural decisions based on federal regulations.

Moreover, 5,500 pieces of World War II ordinance were discovered, "a lot of it live" says Mitzkewich. The work found "everything from small cartridges to 500 pound bombs."

Logistics and communications presented special challenges. All the equipment, almost all the people, the pipes, and over 100 metric tons of aggregates-for the asphalt and any structural concrete-had to be imported.

"At the max," Mitzkewich says, "there were over 1,000 people from countries including Palau, United States, Korea, Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Australia and Vietnam working on the road at any one time and between 700 and 1,000 pieces of equipment."

A lawsuit filed by Daewoo against the Army Corps of Engineers in 2002 claiming "the impossibility of project completion within the allotted period of 1,080 days" and "failure to disclose vital information" continues in the 9th District courtroom of the United States Court of Federal Claims, Honolulu, Hawaii.