The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific is embarking on a $4 million construction program to create more than 17,000 additional urn storage niches.

The new niches should handle the demand over the next 10 to 15 years to enshrine urns containing the ashes of cremated World War II and other veterans.

American veterans are dying at a rate of about 1,900 a day, and that translates into 50 to 60 requests per month to place the urns into columbarium niches at the cemetery, said cemetery director Gene Castagnetti.

"The one question I am asked the most often when I meet with various veterans associations is, 'Do you have a place for me?'

"We want to give them the sense of confidence and reassurance that we will be able to take care of them at the time of their death," Castagnetti said.

There are about 33,500 in-ground sites at the cemetery, he said, but there is no more room for new casketed burials. Castagnetti said only 818 of the 9,568 columbarium niches are available, which means the Punchbowl cemetery would run out of niches in a year if the expansion project didn't get under way soon.

Work will begin July 13 on what Castagnetti describes as a "fast-track" construction project that will create 778 new niches by Oct. 15 to store urns at the cemetery's Columbarium Court Nos. 6 and 7.

After those niches are completed, future expansion plans call for the creation of five more columbarium courts, creating 17,000 additional urn storage niches and extending the life of Punchbowl by another 10 to 15 years, Castagnetti said.

Castagnetti said "the price to pay" for the speeded-up construction plan is that the two columbariums where the fast-track work will take place will be closed temporarily to visitors due to safety concerns.

"We need to stress that we can't let the next of kin, mostly octogenarians, stumble around and get into the construction area," he said.

For the next two weeks, employees at the cemetery will be handing out notices explaining why visits to the two columbarium areas will not be permitted.

Instead, visitors will be directed to a chapel on the cemetery grounds that will contain a list of names of all of those whose ashes are entombed in the columbarium walls that are temporarily off limits.

Space will be set aside at the chapel for floral offerings.

IN HIGH DEMAND

While construction is under way from July 13 through Oct. 15, no new urns will be placed into the remaining niches at the columbarium. Instead, families or funeral homes will be asked to hold the urns until the construction project is completed.

Each of the niches is 10 inches high, 14 inches wide and 20 inches deep.

The cemetery gets requests from U.S. veterans and their families from around the world who want their remains to be enshrined at Punchbowl.

The cemetery continues to provide in-ground burials for veterans whose spouses or other family members are already buried there as well as for family members of veterans already buried, Castagnetti said.

But all new requests by veterans who do not already have a family member buried in the cemetery can only be met by offering niche space, Castagnetti said.

The expansion comes as welcome news to local veterans groups.

Mark Moses, director of the Hawai'i Office of Veterans Services, said there is a great demand for more burial space and niches. The Office of Veterans Services oversees Hawai'i's eight state veterans cemeteries.

Moses said the state plans to add 2,036 niches at the Hawai'i State Veterans Cemetery in Kane'ohe. This, along with the Punchbowl expansion, is expected to keep up with the demand.

"We need both," Moses said. "We try to build for at least 25 years into the future, but with some of my projects, I'm looking much further than that."

He added that the Punchbowl expansion will be good for the veterans who don't already have a family member buried there.

"There are all the other veterans who say, 'What about me? I want to go to Punchbowl,' " Moses said. "With the addition of niches, that option will go on for quite a while."