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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, February 27, 2003

DOT to probe pothole fiasco

 •  Previous story: State's purchase of pothole patcher a bust

By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer

State Department of Transportation director Rod Haraga plans to "follow up and find out what we can do about" his department's $156,000 pothole-patching machine that has never patched a single pothole.

The 17-ton high-tech vehicle hasn't been used since highways division personnel showed it off to news reporters in July 2001. Among the problems with the Rosco RA-300 is that it uses a special kind of asphalt mix that cannot be found on O'ahu.

Haraga, who took over the DOT last month, said he'd never heard of the vehicle until The Advertiser contacted him about it Monday.

"I want to find out who's responsible and see if there's some way the machine can be used," Haraga said.

Martin Okabe, chief engineer for the O'ahu office of the state Highways Division, said yesterday that the person responsible for the purchase has been out on sick leave for months. He declined to identify the employee but said the leave is unrelated to the pothole patcher purchase.

"So no one's being held responsible," said state Sen. Fred Hemmings R-25th (Kailua, Waimanalo, Portlock). "The bureaucracy, which in large part is running state government, is unaccountable. Here's another example of how taxpayers' money can be better spent in these tough economic times."

Haraga said he wants some answers about how the fiasco happened and what can be done about it.

According to Okabe, a special oil mixed with asphalt in the machine is available only from a vendor on the Big Island and it's not cost-effective to ship the oil to O'ahu.

Haraga questions that.

"The oil comes here from somewhere else. Doesn't it get shipped to O'ahu before it goes to the Big Island?" he asked. "I need to find out more about this."

Okabe also told The Advertiser Tuesday that the state can't easily load oil and asphalt into separate tanks on the machine. "You have to put the materials in from the top, and we have no facility to do that easily," he said.

Haraga said yesterday: "I don't know why we don't have that kind of facility."

Okabe said the state plans to ship the vehicle for use on the Big Island, but Haraga said he still wants to determine if the machine can be put to use in Honolulu.