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Mayor pledges
increase in
repaving projects

But mayoral challenger
Mufi Hannemann says Harris
is playing a 'shell game'
with city funds

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

More Oahu roads will be repaved this year than in recent years, Mayor Jeremy Harris' administration is promising.

But Councilman Mufi Hannemann says the administration already should have been doing the work and should not divert money for fixing roads to new projects favored by the mayor.

Managing Director Ben Lee said late yesterday that the city is repaving 184 lane miles this year -- 53 miles by city employees, 76 miles by contractors and 55 miles through an agreement with the Board of Water Supply.

Lee also forecasted 288 miles of repaving for fiscal year 2001, which begins July 1 -- 70 miles in-house, 150 miles by contractors, 35 miles through the Board of Water Supply and 33 miles by the Department of Design and Construction, along the route of its sewer-line projects.

In 1999 the city paved just 39 miles of road. Forty miles were paved in 1998, and 50 miles in 1997.

That contrasts with the more than 100 miles a year the city paved in both 1996 and 1995, and the more than 200 miles in both 1994 and 1993.

Harris became mayor in 1994.

Utilities may pitch in

Lee said repaving "has never been a low priority" in the Harris administration, but "more austere and difficult" budget times made it difficult to provide more for roads.

He noted that more streets are now coming due in their maintenance cycle -- 10 years for major streets, 15 years for minor thoroughfares.

Repaving of most major thoroughfares is done through outside contractors, funded by the capital improvements budget. Work on smaller roads is done in-house.

Lee also announced that in addition to having the Board of Water Supply and Department of Design and Construction on board for repaving, the city will be asking Hawaiian Electric, GTE Hawaiian Tel and other utilities with underground lines to begin paving as well.

"We're going to be talking them to see if they should resurface entire lanes rather than just coming back and patching them, because patching just doesn't last," Lee said.

Lee and Ross Sasamura, city facilities maintenance director, acknowledged that repaving of roads has become an issue with Oahu residents.

"We have a sensitivity for the difficulties that the public is having," Sasamura said. During a Budget Committee briefing earlier yesterday, Hannemann noted the recent drop in repaved miles and ripped into the administration for throwing money at new road projects instead of focusing on repair work.

Figures in dispute

Hannemann, who has announced plans to run against Harris in this fall's mayoral election, said there is no justification for the number of complaints he gets for roads in need of paving.

"A lot of people are not satisfied," he said. "The concern is that money is being shifted elsewhere."

Hannemann said the mayor highlights attention-getting projects such as the widening of King Street sidewalks in Chinatown and converting Punchbowl Street into a two-way road, but mostly ignores routine repaving.

Sasamura said neither project mentioned is using money that could have been designated for repaving.

Hannemann also was incredulous after hearing the administration gave to reporters four different sets of numbers dealing with the number of miles being paved this year and next.

Sasamura cited different sets of numbers while speaking before the Budget Committee, and then with reporters minutes later. Two more totally different sets later were given, in the afternoon and early evening TV newscasts.

"This is just part of the continuing shell game of their explanation as to why miles of road have been so low," Hannemann said. "The administration has only changed it this year because we made it an issue."

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http://www.co.honolulu.hi.us