Reopening delay angers many

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer

A newly refurbished dock at the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor can't immediately reopen because it is plagued by static electricity, according to Department of Land and Natural Resources officials.

Slips at Pier G in the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor remain empty for now. The Board of Land and Natural Resources says the harbor's refurbished dock has a perplexing problem of static electricity and poses a safety threat to users. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

The $989,175 project was originally to be completed by March 29, but a contract change order to comply with disabled access laws and include other modifications increased the cost to $1,036,000 and added 90 days to the schedule, DLNR officials say.

Dock tenants, who had moved their sail and motor boats to other slips within the harbor, were notified early last month that they could move back on May 18. But officials told boaters about a week later that the project wouldn't be ready by then because static electricity accumulates on the piers' surface and could shock them.

"I just can't believe it has taken them so long to finish this," said Susan Ray, who has lived on her 30-foot sailboat at the harbor for 10 years. "Then they were talking about ripping it up again because of the static."

Juri Talva, project manager for contractor Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co., declined to comment on the project. But DLNR chief engineer Andrew Monden said workers are now trying to solve the static dilemma and that the dock should be open by late next week.

Ray said she is not convinced that static electricity is a big problem. She and a friend rowed over to the gated new dock in a dinghy and climbed aboard to test the theory, she said. They were not jolted.

Monden said not everyone who strolls on the dock gets zinged every time but that it could pose a safety risk for those who do. He said it is unclear exactly what is causing the static to build up and that he had never heard of a similar problem with a dock.

"The funny thing is that not everybody gets shocked," he said. "And it's happening only during the time between 12 and two or three in the afternoon, and only on sunny days."

Two of 20 people working on and inspecting the dock on Wednesday afternoon were shocked, Monden said. Workers will install aluminum bars every few feet in hopes of discharging electricity from the dock's plastic surface, he said.

Harbor Master Megan Statts said monthly revenue from Dock G's 77 tenants would normally be about $15,000, plus additional fees from a dozen live-aboard tenants who pay an extra $5.25 for each foot of the length of their boat.

That would bring monthly revenue to about $17,000 if the live-aboard boats average 32 feet, meaning the total lost income for seven months is $119,000. Officials said the harbor lost additional money by keeping other slips vacant before the project began, to accommodate boaters displaced by the work.

Mac Oliver, another longtime live-aboard tenant at Dock G, said more intensive work at private O'ahu harbors had been performed in considerably less time. He complained that the state could have financed additional needed improvements at Ala Wai harbor with the revenue lost because of the delays.

"I feel very frustrated that it takes the state seven times longer to do something than it takes private industry, and to do less work," he said.

Oliver said some tenants came from the Mainland to move their boats when they were notified that the dock would soon be ready, only to return with the task not completed because the static problem delayed the re-opening.

Statts declined to comment on issues other than the lost revenue, but DLNR O'ahu Small Boat Harbors manager Stephen Thompson said he had not received any complaints.

Revenue from the berthing fees goes into a special fund that pays to operate the harbor and others throughout the state, and to make capital improvements, he said.

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