The first phase of a major construction program to add thousands of niches at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl has been completed and work will begin Monday on phase 2.

Construction on the first phase began in July and consists of 778 new niches in the cemetery's Columbarium Courts 6 and 7. The second phase will add 3,004 niches to Columbarium Courts 8 through 12 and is expected to take nine months to complete.

Gene Castagnetti, cemetery director, said that during the construction, family and visitors will be asked to place flowers for loved ones in the cemetery's chapel. But Castagnetti said cemetery officials acknowledge that there are recent inurnments in Court No. 12 so that area will remain open until Nov. 13.

"This is a big inconvenience , and it's recognized as a big inconvenience," Castagnetti said. "But the benefit statement is when we're finished with courts 8 through 12, we will have approximately 3,000 additional niches to serve our veterans and their eligible spouses, which will be meeting our mission."

The construction is part of the cemetery's "fast-track" program to meet the needs of American veterans, who are dying at a rate of about 1,900 a month in Hawaii and elsewhere. Castagnetti said there are about 50 requests per month to place urns into columbarium niches at Punchbowl and if no new niches were built, the cemetery would have run out of space in a year.

The first two phases should provide enough niches to cover the next six years, he said. In the long term, the cemetery plans to build 17,000 niches under a $4 million construction program.

"This is tax dollars well spent toward serving the burial benefits of our veterans," Castagnetti said. "We will have availability of niches way into the future."

In addition to the columbarium work, the cemetery this month began a two-year project to replace the existing grass with new turf. Castagnetti said the work is being done in sections and require that the grass be dug and grave markers temporarily removed.

He said new grass will be planted, the markers cleaned and then placed on a new platform to prevent them from sinking.