Test pile drivings will begin later this month at the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center site at Pearl Harbor as work begins on a $58 million program to rebuild the tourist destination’s facilities.
Watts Constructors LLC was awarded a $32.6 million contract in September as part of the first phase, which includes a new 17,750-square-foot visitor
center. Healy Tibbitts Builders Inc. has been hired as the project’s pile-driving subcontractor. The existing visitor center will remain open during construction.
Phase 2, which will begin in early 2010, includes demolition of the existing visitor center and construction of new exhibit pavilions. Naval Facilities Engineering Command Hawaii is administering the construction. The estimated completion date for this project is September 2010, with a formal opening planned for Dec. 7, 2010.
The new complex will house state-of-the-art exhibits and accommodate 1.5 million people, 362 days a year. It will include a ticket office, concession, administrative and support areas, exhibit space, theaters and restrooms, plus site improvements such as crosswalks and walkways, security walls, fencing, landscaping and vehicle and bus parking.
