Bad weather and a chronic labour shortage will delay the completion of an air base on a remote Japanese island by three years, Japan’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) says. Work…
The post Labour scarcity and heavy seas delay air base on remote Japanese island appeared first on Global Construction Review.
Bad weather and a chronic labour shortage will delay the completion of an air base on a remote Japanese island by three years, Japan’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) says.
Work on the Air Self-Defense Force base on uninhabited Mageshima Island started in January 2023 and was due to finish in 2027, but the MOD has now pushed the completion date back to March 2030, Jiji Press news agency reports.
The project is vulnerable to weather because the site’s workers, estimated to number around 6,000, have to commute by fishing boats from the bigger island of Tanegashima, some 10km to the east.
Housing for workers on Mageshima is now under construction, Jiji reports, but machinery and materials still have to come by boat.
Other big projects in Japan such as the World Expo in Osaka, which opens in April, have further constrained labour and material supplies.
Jiji reports that the project is disrupting life on the bigger island, Tanegashima, home to around 30,000 people.
The influx of construction workers has boosted its population by 20%, causing traffic congestion and rising rents, but a boom in the island’s hospitality sector.
The base be a hub for defending Japan’s Nansei islands, accommodating Japan’s F-35B stealth fighters.
It will double as a base for takeoff and landing exercises for US carrier-based aircraft.
The island was previously logged in preparation for runways after a 2009 proposal for an air base.
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The post Labour scarcity and heavy seas delay air base on remote Japanese island appeared first on Global Construction Review.