Letter to the Editor: Guam’s roads shouldn’t feel like an obstacle course

Telo Taitague

At this point, driving around our island feels less like a commute and more like a sporting event. Every village road has become its own obstacle course, complete with potholes deep enough to hide a small car, or at least slow one down permanently. We swerve, we brake, we pray our tires survive the day. This isn’t “island charm.” It’s a public safety failure.

As both a legislator and a resident who drives these same cratered roads, I share everyone else's frustrations: shredded tires, bent rims, busted suspensions, and near misses that could have ended far worse. Our village streets—the arteries that connect our families, our schools, our businesses—are showing the strain of storms, heavy traffic, and years of underinvestment.

I’ve spent years pushing for long-term, structural solutions. Since first introducing road funding legislation in 2019, I’ve worked every term to prioritize village streets in our budget. In 2022, I helped secure $10.6 million without raising taxes.

I supported directing another $13 million from available reserves. Last year, working with Speaker Frank Blas, I introduced legislation to add another $10 million through the Guam Highway Fund while preserving the 5 percent business privilege tax on major military buildup contracts. In total, these measures amount to more than $30 million in funding to strengthen our roads.

But let’s be honest: even $30 million barely scratches the surface. The 2009 Village Streets Master Plan estimated the need at $746 million—and that was before inflation, before stronger storms, and before another decade of wear and tear. When annual appropriations fall short of what’s required for resurfacing, drainage upgrades, and preventive maintenance, we stay trapped in a cycle of patch‑and‑pray instead of building durable infrastructure.

And funding isn’t the only problem. According to a recent audit conducted by the Office of Public Accountability, our Village Streets Master Plan hasn’t been consistently updated, implemented, or used as the central tool for prioritizing village street improvements. Without a current, actively managed plan that ranks road needs and coordinates work between DPW and our village mayors, even good funding decisions become reactive instead of strategic.

Meanwhile, we’re still asking mayors to fill potholes with buckets of crushed coral, or kaskåhu. Resourceful? Absolutely. Sustainable? Not even close. Coral and gravel aren’t substitutes for engineered asphalt, proper drainage, guardrails, or professional resurfacing that can survive the next typhoon season. Our people aren’t asking for temporary relief. They’re asking for roads that don’t destroy their cars or endanger their families.

With the FY2027 budget underway, we have a real opportunity to align priorities and accelerate improvements. We need a modernized Village Streets Master Plan and a dedicated, predictable revenue stream tied directly to it. Let me be clear: this is not a call for new taxes. Our families are already stretched, and the answer is not to ask them to pay more. It is to prioritize existing revenues, tie them directly to village road repairs, and demand measurable results.

Every dollar dedicated to our streets should come with transparency, public reporting, and clear timelines for completion. Taxpayers deserve to see where their money is going and to drive on roads that reflect that investment. Not one‑time fixes. Not emergency patches. A real, transparent, multi‑year plan that DPW can effectively execute and the public can track. When everyone is operating from the same roadmap, we can make meaningful progress.

Sen. Telo T. Taitague, a member of the 38th Guam Legislature, is the chairwoman of the Committee on Economic Investment, Military Buildup, Regional Relations, Technology, Regulatory Affairs, Justice, Elections, and Retirement.

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