Waikiki Shell gets treatment for termites
An enormous red-and-black tent shrouded the Waikiki Shell yesterday, a first for the 51-year-old Honolulu landmark.
While performers have been singing and dancing on the Shell's outdoor stage, termites have been up on the roof having dinner with the show.
"It's pretty bad," Eugene Lee, director of the city Department of Design and Construction, said of the termite infestation. "Sizable nests were discovered. It's bad enough that we had to go out with an emergency contract."
The termite treatment alone will cost about $30,000, not to mention the cost of repairing the wooden roof, a figure that Lee did not have available yesterday.
The Shell's height and unique design, with its steep sides, likely add to the costs of fumigation and roofing repairs, Lee said.
No one at the city can recall another time the Kapiolani Park concert venue was tented to treat for termites, said John Fuhrmann, who oversees events and services for the Waikiki Shell and the Neal S. Blaisdell Center.
Fuhrmann said workers had just begun removing the old roofing material from two flat areas over the dressing rooms damaged by heavy high winds and rain last year when they discovered the termite damage.
Construction on the Waikiki Shell began in 1954, and it opened in 1956.
Neither Fuhrmann nor Lee would say whether the Shell should have been fumigated at least once in the past 51 years. But Fuhrmann said some spot work to treat for termites has been done.
Lee said they are on a tight schedule to get the tent up and down and aired out by Sunday morning, when an event is scheduled.