Posted on: Tuesday, August 12, 2003

Honolulu company to get $21.5 million to fix up Tern Island

Associated Press

A Honolulu construction firm is expected to receive $21.5 million in federal money for improvement projects on Tern Island, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie's office said yesterday.

Healy Tibbitts Builders Inc. was awarded the contracts to improve the existing boat dock, launching ramp and rock revetment on Tern Island, a 37-acre islet in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands' French Frigate Shoals.

The work will be done to control erosion on the island, which is 575 miles northwest of Honolulu.

Tern Island is a wildlife preserve owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Army Corps of Engineers is administering the contract on behalf of the wildlife service.

Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, is expected to make the official announcement today at a meeting with the Building Industry Association in Honolulu.

The congressman's office said Abercrombie will also discuss the U.S. military posture in the Pacific, projected military construction for Hawai'i and federal policies affecting transportation projects.

Last month, Healy Tibbitts won a $9.7 million Navy contract for the partial demolition of bravo wharf at Pearl Harbor, and construction of a new reinforced concrete wharf. The wharf work is expected to be completed by November 2004.