Naha 每 The Defense Ministry resumed ground improvement work in Oura Bay in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, on Friday for the construction of a replacement facility for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, located in Ginowan.
The ministry notified the Nago city government and other related parties of the work resumption off the coast of the city＊s Henoko district after a six-month hiatus, people familiar with the matter said.
The move will likely prompt a backlash from protesters against the project to relocate functions of the U.S. Marine base to another part of the prefecture. The Okinawa Prefectural Government is also against the plan.
The ministry started driving sand piles into what experts describe as mayonnaise-like soft ground in the bay in December last year. But it halted the work to harden the soil with some 71,000 sand piles without detailed explanations in June, when the Okinawa government was calling for an end to the work on the grounds that its infeasibility had become clearer.
Land reclamation work off Henoko is largely complete on the southern side but behind schedule on the eastern side.
The ministry has stepped up reclamation in areas not affected by the soft ground since last month.
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