Okinawa General Bureau announced that the offshore construction of the Naha Airport second runway started Tuesday, when the first 12 buoys marking the planned site of the runway were placed offshore.

A cornerstone-laying ceremony will be held in Naha City, Saturday. The construction is expected to take 5 years and 10 months, with the grand opening in spring of 2020.

An underwater survey will take place during the month of March, to locate possible unexploded ordnance in the area, and to devise pollution prevention measures.

In April, the offshore construction is scheduled to begin at full speed as a temporary bridge will be put into place, and sand dredging will start.

The reclamation area is about 160 hectares requiring about 99 million cubic meters of soil to fill in. The new 2,700-meter-long runway will be 1,310 meters offshore from the current runway.

The total construction costs are estimated to be ¥199,3 billion.

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