City, state switch pothole filler
By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer
Pothole problems to Honolulu drivers are pothole profit to a Waipahu hardware and construction supply firm.
OK Hardware is the sole distributor in Hawai'i of a product called Wespro Asphalt that is increasingly used by the city and state to fix potholes on the streets and highways of O'ahu.
The highways division of the state Transportation Department this month asked the state's chief procurement officer to approve the sole-source, nonbid purchase of 333 tons of the material for $200,000.
That's $600 a ton, far more than the $65 to $70 per ton price of hot mix asphalt, the material traditionally used to pave streets and repair potholes.
But Wespro has many advantages over hot mix for pothole repair work, the state said.
"In terms of a lasting patch it is equivalent to hot mix, yet it can be stored in an open environment for up to 30 days without hardening," said highways division official Michael Medeiros in his purchase request.
Hot mix asphalt has to be used right away because once it hardens, it has to be dumped, said Robert Paik of Grace Pacific Corp., which produces the material locally.
City spokeswoman Carol Costa said Wespro Asphalt also can be used in wet weather, but hot mix can't.
Medeiros and Costa also said much of the pothole repair work is done at night but hot mix asphalt isn't available at night from Grace Pacific Corp.
Paik said it isn't cost effective to run the plants at night except to supply large jobs using 25 tons or more of the material.
Grace Pacific isn't losing out on pothole repair business by government's switch to Wespro, however, because Grace Pacific has the contract to produce the material in bulk for OK Hardware, which then distributes it, said Paik and James "Kimo" Scott of OK Hardware.
The $600 per ton price quoted in the state's sole-source purchase request is a discount from the retail cost of $900 a ton, Paik said.
Wespro Asphalt can be purchased at OK Hardware by the pail. A 60-pound pail costs $30.
Wespro Inc. of Fresno, Calif., developed the product and sells it around the country through distributors like OK Hardware.
Scott said OK Hardware recently shipped 13 tons of the product to Moloka'i for road repair work.
Reach Jim Dooley at 535-2447 or at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.
