The mauka pit is under construction at the corner of Kuhio Avenue and Kai'olu Street.

Workers expect to finish excavation this week and begin reinforcement for a concrete floor slab. Jet grouting also continues along Kai'olu Street.

Once this work is completed, possibly this weekend, street parking will be reopened.

Contractors have set a tentative launch date of April 23 to begin digging a second tunnel under the Ala Wai Canal and Kai'olu Street.

The line will be tunneled starting at the mauka pit, near the Ala Wai Community Gardens. It will run 1,100 feet under the canal and Kai'olu Street before emerging in the makai pit. It will parallel the first wastewater line that has already been installed.

Contractors successfully tested that line last week. It and the second line will be hooked up to the Beachwalk Pump Station this summer, completing the major portion of the Beachwalk Wastewater Emergency Bypass project.

The BWEB project is being built in two phases. The "emergency bypass" part of the BWEB project represented Phase One and was completed in July. These are the above ground pipes and pumps along the Ala Wai Boulevard that hook into a line sitting on the floor of the Ala Wai Canal. That line goes back above ground near Ala Moana Beach Park and hooks into a pump station at the park. The sewage is then sent to the wastewater treatment plant at Sand Island. The bypass gives the city the ability to avoid a repeat of the March 2006 sewage spill.

Phase Two is ongoing, and primarily involves finishing the two underground wastewater lines. Once completed, contractors will hook both new state-of-the-art lines to the Beachwalk Pump Station and quit using the aging line that broke last year. The city then plans to remove the bypass operation in phases, starting with the pipe and pumps on Ala Wai Boulevard. The line on the canal floor will be used until the city builds a new underground line linking Waikiki to Ala Moana Beach Park.

For updates, visit www.beachwalkbypass.com or call 543-8374 for updates.