Airport fixing ramps for Wiki-Wiki buses
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer
The state is spending more than $12 million to repair and upgrade ramps at Honolulu International Airport that serve the Wiki-Wiki passenger shuttles and other airport vehicles.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
The repairs are needed to fix decaying roadways in anticipation of new buses scheduled to arrive later this year, officials said.
Wiki-Wiki bus ramps are being renovated and extended at the Honolulu airport. Officials say the shuttles will be replaced with electric-gas hybrid vehicles.
The Wiki-Wiki vehicles move thousands of passengers a day between airport gates and the terminal and baggage claim areas. The ramps, some of which date to the 1970s, have not received any major renovations since they were built.
The first phase of the work includes the removal and replacement of the existing concrete surface, sidewalks and waterproofing system. That work has caused the closure of two areas in front of the central concourse of the airport's main terminal and a rearrangement of traffic patterns in the area, officials said. The entire second-level of the diamondhead ramp also will be closed until at least mid-September, officials said.
"We are stressing the need to drive slowly and use caution," an airport construction newsletter warns airport tenants. "Traffic lanes are now narrower. Larger vehicles have less room to maneuver."
The ramps are separate from the ones used by the public to pick up or drop off passengers or reach parking areas.
The contractor, Kiewit Pacific Co., also is testing and making repairs to the existing drainage system as well as extending the 'ewa and diamondhead ramps to allow for two-way bus traffic. The final phase of the work involves putting a new slip-resistant finish on the ramps to improve traction for the Wiki-Wiki and other vehicles during rainy weather.
As recently as two years ago, state officials were still hoping to replace the aging Wiki-Wiki trolleys with an electric "People Mover" walkway, but those plans have been put on hold indefinitely since the airport redirected much of its capital improvement budget to security projects after the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks.
Now airport officials say the old diesel-powered shuttles will be replaced later this year with new electric-gas hybrid vehicles developed under a $2.5 million bid by GEM of Hawai'i and Electric Vehicles International, a Mainland developer of electric vehicles.
The new vehicles will be air conditioned and quieter than existing shuttles, officials said.
Construction on the Wiki-Wiki ramps is expected to be finished in September 2003.
