Water-main project finally done
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
Something is missing on Dillingham Boulevard. The traffic cones, steel plates, lane closures or construction crews that for years have frustrated area drivers are all gone.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
For the first time since 1999, when work began on an $8.2 million Board of Water Supply project to install a 42-inch concrete water main, the traffic lanes are open, the road is repaved and vehicles can move as freely as the traffic will allow.
Jay and Jayne Kim, owners of Eki Cyclery in Kalihi, say customers finally have easy access to their store on Dillingham Boulevard.
Last week, the last section of Dillingham was paved and only a few details remain to be done. The final lane striping and raising manhole covers to the new street level is expected to be completed in May.
No one imagines this will solve traffic congestion in the busy business area, which is used by 30,000 drivers every day, according to city traffic counts. But people who work in the area say they're just glad the end of the construction is near.
Eki Cyclery is a family bicycle business founded in 1911 that has been on Dillingham since 1970. The shop is run by Jay Kim and his wife, Jayne, who have witnessed the project from start to finish.
"I remember one year it was pretty bad," said Jay Kim. "The Board of Water Supply blocked off our entrance about a week before Christmas. Some customers said they couldn't find a way in so they passed on us that year. That Christmas we lost a lot of business."
The company was able to survive years of construction because of its loyal customers, Kim said.
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"I'm grateful to them," he said. "When they blocked us off, a lot of them found a way to get in. If they can't make it in one day, they'll make it in another day. We stay open seven days a week to make it easier."
Road work on Dillingham for a new water main, an $8.2 million Board of Water Supply project, began in 1999. Drivers had to negotiate traffic cones, steel plates and lane closures during the project.
The years of water-main work were plagued with delays. Work stalled almost immediately when the original contractor went bankrupt, said board spokeswoman Su Shin. Other setbacks included the need to secure federal permits for crossing the Kapalama Canal, a switch to night work that required additional state permits and public hearings, and dealing with heavy metals found in the soil that required the dirt to be treated as a hazardous material, she said.
"It was a very complex project with lots and lots of unforeseen delays," Shin said.
The project went out to bid in 1998, Shin said, but the actual construction took four years. The rest of the time was dealing with delays, she said.
Now that the project is all but finished and the entire road has been resurfaced, long-suffering residents and businesses are hoping no more projects are planned on Dillingham for a long time to come.
"If they have to do the sewers, the water pipes, we can understand," said Bernie Young, chairwoman of the Kalihi-Palama Neighborhood Board. "What has to be done, has to be done. I just hope they don't come up with new projects on Dillingham."
According to the Board of Water Supply, the new water main was needed as a connection to existing 42-inch water transmission lines to guarantee service to the urban core of Honolulu, Waikiki and Hawai'i Kai. The new line is expected to last 50 to 75 years.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
The board has 1,925 miles of water pipeline in the municipal system and on average 24 to 25 miles a year are replaced.
Vehicles drive over the newly surfaced Dillingham Boulevard at the intersection with Kokea, with motorists no longer fearing damaged tires and wheels from steel plates and potholes because of roadwork.
Ron Jones, a long-time member of the Kalihi Business Association, said Dillingham, North King Street and Nimitz Highway — the three traffic arteries through Kalihi — all are heavily used by commuters between 'Aiea, Central O'ahu and downtown. About 128,000 vehicles a day use those three roadways to cross Kalihi.
"If they actually finish up Dillingham and that gets smooth going, well then they are going to shut down Nimitz," Jones said. "We haven't had three avenues open in so long it's almost a joke."
The state is repaving Nimitz Highway between Sumner Street in Iwilei and Ke'ehi Interchange at the H-1 Freeway, working at night and shutting several lanes at a time.
The $3.6 million state Department of Transportation project will complete work that started a year and a half ago on Nimitz. The project also will improve driving conditions at a time when the state plans to extend its Zipper Lane from H-1 to the Nimitz contraflow lane in August, giving drivers 50 miles of dedicated roadway for carpoolers.
"When they started contra-flow on Nimitz, initially those businesses lost up to 25 percent of their business," Jones said. "Within weeks, the regular customers found an alternative route around it and came back. There is probably a 5 percent loss of business overall. That is all lost money that they will never regain."
Mike Yuen, the city Department of Design and Construction's management branch chief, said for now drivers can rest assured that road paving on Dillingham Boulevard is done, but added that no road is ever really completely finished.
"There are so many streets out there; we never see the end of repairs," Yuen said. "There is always more to do. The paving we did on Dillingham is an interim measure to extend the life of the pavement. It's a lot smoother to drive. I think they are thinking of something more extensive down the road, possibly using federal funds. But not in the near future. In the planning, talking stages."
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
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Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Jay and Jayne Kim, owners of Eki Cyclery in Kalihi, say customers finally have easy access to their store on Dillingham Boulevard.
