Intersection work drags on
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Leeward Oahu Writer
For more than a year, residents of Honokai Hale have watched in wonderment as a simple road project was done, torn up, redone, then torn up again.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Today, the project expected to be finished last December remains unfinished, and rubble from the first two efforts sits in the middle of Farrington HIghway.
The intersection of Waiomea Street and Farrington Highway has been under construction since April 2001.
"I don't know what they're doing," said Julian Aquino who lives directly across from the project. "No idea. This is the second time they've busted out the divides. When it gets done it should be nice. But why's it taking so long?"
It all began back on April 9, 2001, as a relatively simple construction project to put in median barriers and a traffic signal on Farrington Highway near Waiomea Street at Nanakai Gardens, on the western side of Honokai Hale.
The work was supposed to be finished in eight months.
Things didn't turn out that way. Steel-reinforced concrete barriers were planted, then blasted out with hydraulic hammers, poured in again, and knocked down once more. Meanwhile, still no the traffic signal.
Aquino's neighbor, Pam Fujita, who describes the work a "mystery project," said she has telephoned so many agencies and departments to complain that she keeps a calendar to log her calls. By now she says she's got it down to a little speech:
"This wouldn't happen in Honolulu," she begins. "Because they wouldn't put up with this. But since we're a remote sleepy little community out in the middle of nowhere, nothing gets done."
Or, to be more precise, what gets done keeps getting done again.
Ballard Bannister, project engineer for KD Construction, the subcontractor that took over from another subcontractor on the barrier project, said the effort was plagued by numerous woes.
Bad luck, a faulty paving machine, design changes, miscalculations, and too many cooks trying to coordinate too many things at once, these were all contributing factors to what stalled the project, he said.
"There were too many contractors involved," said Bannister.
Art Sickels, resident engineer in charge for the Department of Transportation, said it became necessary for the state to enforce compliance with its standards.
"The first two times the contractor had to demolish something that they built was because it was unacceptable work," Sickels said. "They were using a new piece of equipment and were having some difficulties. The barriers didn't come out straight, and they were having trouble with the concrete.
"The first time they had to replace, I think, about 200 feet. The second time they had trouble with the machine again, but they stopped after 20 feet. This last time was just the final 25 feet on the Wai'anae side of the Waiomea Street intersection."
Which is where the rubble remains today.
How much extra has all this cost the taxpayer? Nothing, Sickels said. The project was budgeted at just under $2 million, and that's right where it will come in when it's finished.
