New Zealand company, Tonkin and Taylor, last week began soil drilling at the site of the new Fono building in preparation for the pile driving that the Federal Emergency Management Agency insists is a requirement for the new home of the American Samoa Legislature.
FEMA says this is a requirement for the zone that the new building is situated in and if the American Samoa Government doesn’t comply it may lose future federal disaster assistance.
Two of five holes are to be drilled and the results of the soil tests will determine the sizes and number of piles needed for the job.
AJ Mirasol, an engineer for Paramount Builders, the contractor for the Fono building says the drilling goes down 120 feet for the first two holes but he expects that closer to the ocean they would drill up to 200 feet below the ground.
The Wellington-based Tonkin and Taylor imported a drilling machine for the job and has two drillers and a geo technical engineer working at the site.
They are supposed to complete their work June 19th.
Soil samples will be sent to New Zealand for testing and from the results the pile driving will be finalized.
No decision yet on whether the foundation that was built before the project was halted six months ago would have to be demolished.
This will be determined after the results of the soil tests are out sometime next month or August.
The architect for the Fono Building, Mike Lively of Lively and Associates of Honolulu was here last week for the drilling of the first two holes.
KHJ News understands that construction of the building is targeted to start in October.
