COMMENTARY
Hawai'i's leaders to blame for poor roads

By Sen. Donna Mercado Kim

Any motorist who has been rattled by one of our jaw-jarring potholes knows our roads are in poor condition — and that would be an understatement. While these incidents are anecdotal, there is ample evidence that government is neglecting a basic responsibility to keep our roads in good condition.

City workers fill in potholes on Noe Street in Kalihi. Hawai'i's roads rate among the worst, and most costly to the public, in the nation. Advertiser library photo • Feb. 1, 2002

A similar study by the Road Information Project, a research group supported by road-building and construction interests, pegged the latter figure at $549 a year for each Hawai'i motorist, much higher than the national average of $369.

The Surface Transportation Policy Project, a public-interest group, last year judged Hawai'i's roads the worst-maintained in the nation. Especially noteworthy was the study's finding that Hawai'i receives about $100 million to $150 million annually in federal transportation money, but spends only a quarter of that amount on repairs. A state Department of Transportation official confirmed the figure and added that federal dollars are used for major capital improvement projects rather than on repairs. That means we're building more roads, but not maintaining them — and it shows.

According to Grace Pacific, a local construction company, the amount of asphalt used on O'ahu to build and repair roads has dropped from 800,000 tons in 1996 to under 400,000 tons so far this year, evidence that roads are not being maintained properly or regularly.

Lack of resources — money or labor or both — is usually blamed for government's shortcomings.

But as I noted, the state Department of Transportation spends only a quarter of its federal transportation money on road repairs.

Similarly, according to City Council Chairman Gary Okino, the council granted the city administration everything it asked for in the way of road-repair money in the past 10 years.

But with the exception of 2001, when $11.7 million of the $38 million allocated was spent, and in two other years in which road repairs amounted to $2 million, roadwork expenditures failed to exceed a meager $700,000.

Okino pointed out that the administration consistently failed to use the cash it had, despite the council's appropriations. In 1998, the council budgeted $14.2 million, but the administration spent only $218,000 and encumbered another $3.7 million for expenditure in later years. Millions more lapsed in the ensuing years.

Not only did the city fail to spend on road repairs, its inaction led to the lapse of federal funding.

So if there's plenty of money, is labor the problem? The Harris administration blames its failure to spend road-repair money on a lack of contractors to do the work.

The state offers a similar explanation. Lack of professional staff was cited as the reason the Department of Transportation delayed more than a dozen projects worth $25 million, including resurfacing the H-1 near 'Aiea, extension of the zipper lane from Pearl Harbor to Ke'ehi interchange, Lunalilo on/off-ramp improvements, Fort Weaver Road widening and Farrington Highway improvements from Nanakuli to Makaha.

While labor shortages have become a common excuse in tough budget times, that rationale ignores the number of private consultants and contracting companies in Hawai'i. Grace Pacific, as one example, has claimed it has seven experienced road crews capable of roadwork repair, but on any given day fewer than four of them are working on O'ahu.

So what's the solution? In Nevada, the transportation department changed its policies to prioritize road-repair projects based on rate of deterioration or prediction models rather than pavement condition. Prevention strategies were selected based on life-cycle cost, not initial cost. Finally, maintenance was stepped up with additional money to slash the backlog.

I'm sure other jurisdictions can provide models for us to follow. Or we could tap the University of Hawai'i faculty, who bring their expertise in civil engineering, materials and construction techniques to addressing our problems.

I urge the new director at the Department of Transportation to make road repair and maintenance a top priority. At the very least, he should find ways to speed the design, review and bidding process to ensure road-repair projects are completed quickly.

As for the City and County of Honolulu, the record of the past several years shows that our only hope for road improvements is a new mayor.

My proposal, which I introduced in 2001 and will continue to push, calls for consolidation of road maintenance responsibilities under the county governments. Currently, the state and each county has road maintenance operations on each island. Not only is that duplicative, it creates confusion.

Who's in charge of a particular road? Whom do I call? In this period of tight budgets, having separate operations is not only inefficient, it's downright wasteful. Sadly, this proposal has failed to garner much support in the Legislature, despite its obvious merits.

What we seem to lack is the will to solve the problem. We obviously have the money, resources and labor. We lack the leadership to get the job done.

Until the public demands action, potholes will continue to be a blight on our roadways.