New autonomy allows UH to pick medical school bids
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
In a radical break with the way University of Hawai'i construction projects have been handled for decades, a citizens advisory panel yesterday authorized three Hawai'i construction firms allied with Mainland partners to bid on the $150 million John A. Burns Medical School complex to be built in Kaka'ako.
In pushing ahead with the bidding procedure, the university for the first time is exercising significant control under the autonomy it was granted by voters in November 2000 for what will be UH's largest construction project ever.
The university was granted autonomy under a constitutional amendment handily approved by voters, taking the school's bidding and construction process out of the purview of state bureaucracy. Construction of the new medical school is the first time the university has been in a position to exercise those powers.
"This could never have been done without the university's autonomy," said medical school dean Dr. Edwin Cadman, who praised the speed with which UH has moved ahead to make the new medical school (to be renamed the Health and Wellness Center) in Kaka'ako a reality.
The state Department of Accounting and General Services handles all state construction projects. But at UH the construction process had gained a notorious reputation, with buildings taking years to complete. The university's Post Building was begun nine years ago and is still not complete, for example.
With final bids on the new medical school due by Feb. 15, the construction contract is expected to be awarded sometime in the middle of March. Ground-breaking is scheduled this fall and the first phase of construction will come within three years.
The firms chosen to bid on the medical school are Kobayashi/McCarthy, Hawaiian Dredging/Kajima and Kiewit/DPR. The Mainland firms that joined with local companies are experienced in building facilities with the kinds of complex laboratories needed for the medical school and Cancer Research Center facilities, said Rex Johnson, special consultant to the university for Kaka'ako and director of physical facilities.
"One of the requirements (of the bidding process) was that a local general contractor be involved (to enhance the economy,)" said Dr. Carl-Wilhelm Vogel, director of the Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i, which will be housed within the medical school until Phase II construction is complete.
The massive project will reshape the look of Kaka'ako, launch the university as an economic engine to help drive the state out of stagnation and become a larger player in landing federal research money.
The university set up an internal selection committee of UH planners who reviewed proposals from six contractors.
That list went to the 14-member citizens' Health and Wellness Center Development Advisory Committee created by UH President Evan Dobelle to narrow the field to the three authorized bidders chosen yesterday.
The $150 million needed to complete the first phase of the new medical school will come from bonds secured through the state tobacco settlement fund.
Dobelle has committed to raising the additional $150 million needed for the last three phases from private sources.
The total four-phase $300 million development includes: The $150 million Phase I construction of the medical school, with space to also include part or all of the Cancer Research Center; the $80 million Phase II construction for the Cancer Research Center and renovation of its existing building; the $60 million Phase III construction to renovate the existing Biomedical Sciences facilities at Manoa; and the $10 million Phase IV construction of a biotechnology park in Kaka'ako.
