Slow restart expected at Ameron

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

If striking Teamsters ratify a new contract this afternoon, the concrete trucks will roll out of Ameron Hawaii's Sand Island plant Monday for the first time in 60 days, and end up at the construction sites of the Wal-Mart "Ke'eaumoku super-block" and Ocean Pointe housing project in 'Ewa Beach.

The Teamsters will meet at noon today at their Kalihi headquarters to vote on whether to accept a new five-year contract with Ameron Hawaii.

If they do, Ameron Hawaii officials plan to gear up limited production on Monday.

The company can generate only 800 cubic yards of concrete on Monday instead of the usual 1,200 to 1,500 cubic yards, because of flooding at Ameron's Kapa'a quarry site and a lack of raw materials. So it will have to phase in 25 or 30 of its 48 truck drivers, based on seniority.

A handful of nonunion, nonmanagement Ameron Hawaii employees already were back at work yesterday to juggle concrete orders from Ameron customers who are long overdue for deliveries.

Another group of maintenance workers will report for work tomorrow to check the status of machinery that hasn't been used since Teamsters struck Ameron's three O'ahu operations on Feb. 6, shutting down construction projects across the island.

"We won't know how bad the plants are until we start to push buttons to see what moves and goes," said George West, Ameron Hawaii's vice president of operations for O'ahu.

Ameron's Kapa'a quarry yard was drenched by rain during the strike, leaving debris, pools of water and muddy, slippery quarry roads that will have to be regraded before work can resume to produce concrete components, West said.

"We've got a lot of cleanup to do," he said. "It'll be a few days before we can produce some raw materials. It's going to take us a week to clean out. I'm not expecting any production for a couple or three days."

The first pours on Monday will come from leftover material at Ameron's Sand Island and Kapa'a quarry sites.

Ameron dispatchers yesterday were still juggling next week's delivery schedule, and West was trying to get a handle on how much work would be needed to get operations back to normal.

"We're not in shape to take large pours right now," West said. "We could be up (to normal) in a day or two, or it could take us a week. It depends on the quarry."

Kenneth Choate, executive vice president of Haseko Construction Inc., which is building Ocean Pointe, is glad to be one of Ameron's first customers.

He'll receive only 140 cubic yards of concrete, leaving him more than 2,500 cubic yards behind schedule. But Choate understands.

"That's a good start," he said.

Getting concrete production back to normal, he said, is "like an ocean liner. It's no problem once you get out on the ocean. But it's tough to get rolling."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.