Hau'ula-based Preferred Constructors Inc., which got the 'Aiea Heights waterline contract for a low bid of $2.56 million, is expected to complete the three-phase project in September, 13 months behind schedule.

Delays, especially with Preferred being unable to meet the project timeline for paving because of problems with its subcontractor Grace Pacific, tested the patience of not only residents and the 'Aiea Neighborhood Board, but also the Board of Water Supply.

A Board of Water Supply representative has been present at Neighborhood Board meetings, but when Preferred head Kiuvalu Ramanlal failed to appear at the May 9 meeting, 'Aiea Neighborhood Board chairman William Clark scheduled a special meeting to address all concerns.

That meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday at 'Aiea Public Library.

The road surface issue, however, appears to have been diffused as Road Builders Corp., a replacement subcontractor, began paving from the bottom of 'Aiea Heights Drive below Kihewa Place the day after the May 9 meeting.

Wayland Kwock, who lives about a half-mile from Keiwa Heiau State Recreation Area at the end of 'Aiea Heights Drive, has been pressing the Board of Water Supply about the project for more than a year. "I see a light at the end of the tunnel," he said, "but I hope it's not an oncoming train.

"If the roadway didn't have all those bumps and potholes, I really wouldn't have cared (about the project)," Kwock said. "I never had any doubts it would be completed. But the level of frustration I feel is the manpower allocated by the contractor as well as his constantly slipping completion dates."

Ramanlal did not acknowledge a request for comment.

Two other contractors — RMY Construction and Thurston Pacific — also are doing Board of Water Supply projects in 'Aiea, and both are either on or ahead of schedule, said Keith Matsumoto, Board of Water Supply's acting chief capital projects officer. The community criticism has been directed at Preferred's performance.

"It's getting better, but we feel the contractor has not performed well. ... Nothing was done in a timely and safe manner," said Claire Tamamoto, president of the 'Aiea Community Association.

Matsumoto said the complaints he's received are reasonable. "Preferred was very diligent about getting out there and fixing some of the trenches and potholes, so it's hard to criticize them for that," he said. "I think they were making an honest effort.

"Pressure-testing of the lines is a time-consuming task where you don't see 80 people working, you see four or five, so it appears that they abandoned the job or (are) not working on it at all. The biggest problem we had was this whole issue of paving. We verified that their subcontractor (Grace Pacific) did have difficulty securing the proper equipment to do the work in the time frame we wanted them to do it in."

The Board of Water Supply forced the issue when Ramanlal was told Grace Pacific could not start the paving until July. The board put pressure on Ramanlal to drop Grace Pacific, and it took six days to find another subcontractor, Matsumoto said.

"We could have taken a more active role, probably pushed him further to get a replacement," Matsumoto said. The board is not allowing Preferred to claim any extension cost due to its own delays or that of its subcontractors , added Matsumoto.

It is Matsumoto's opinion that Preferred's performance in 'Aiea was affected by unexpected problems encountered on another Board of Water Supply project it was doing concurrently at Wilhelmina Rise.

"The Wai'alae Water System project was much more difficult than designed and I believe it impacted (the 'Aiea) project," Matsumoto said. "We anticipated it was just regular soil that they needed to trench up. They go up to Wilhelmina Rise and it's rock. You hit rock and now it takes substantially longer to get the trench done. Those things happen; it's part of construction."

City Councilman Gary Okino said his office has been in contact with the Board of Water Supply at least twice a week over the past two years, passing on complaints from the community and checking on the progress of the 'Aiea Heights project.

Okino is a critic of the system that awards contracts to the lowest bidder. He favors a best-value procurement and performance contracting system like the Performance Information Procurement System, also known as PIPS, developed by Hawai'i-born Dean Kashiwagi of Arizona State's Performance Based Studies Research Group. The system is designed to pick a contractor who has a history of completing high-quality jobs on time.

Gordon Matsuoka, a former state public works administrator, said PIPS was used for 100 roofing and painting contracts from 1988-2002 with favorable results. The state Transportation Department also used it for four projects. The system was scrapped in 2002 because of a legal issue that did not involve the system.

"It works and you don't run into bad contractors," Matsuoka said.

Kashiwagi, who was in Honolulu last week for seminars, said the difference between PIPS and a low-bid system is "from the beginning, someone is held accountable" and there's no finger-pointing. Contracts are awarded based on performance ratings.

"In performance-based, we don't care who you are," Kashiwagi said. "To get the job, you've go to prove you can do it."

Matsumoto said, "Contractors are smart. They know what we can and cannot do and how difficult it is for us to do certain things. They use it to their advantage, be it to negotiate contracts, complete jobs and balance their work. It's just good business on their part."

He said once a contract is awarded to a low bidder and the work is under way, the city is limited in its options. "If they're the low bidder, we need to work with them and do our best," he said.