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3 Kailua Three months after Tressa Owens and her partner opened Zia's Caffe, construction began on a collapsed sewer line in front of the Kailua restaurant.
restaurants
sue city
Customers were driven away
by stench, dust and noise,
according to the ownersBy Leila Fujimori
Star-BulletinThe stench, dust and noise of pile drivers drove the outdoor cafe's customers away. "Tractors were 15 to 20 feet away from the tables," Owens said. "Customers would just get up and leave. We couldn't hear the phone ring, let alone hear the customers. Who'd want to eat lunch in that?"
Zia's is one of three Kailua restaurants suing the city for lost business resulting from months of construction work to the collapsed sewer line that created a sinkhole on Hamakua Drive.
Disruption to the businesses cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the structural damage is significant, said Gerard Jervis, attorney for Jaron's Restaurant Kailua, Bar-B-Q n' Things and Zia's Caffe.
In a lawsuit filed yesterday, Jervis contends that the city was aware that the pipes were highly corroded since 1994 but did nothing about it.The suit also alleges mistakes were made by Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co. that caused the work to continue much longer than projected. Work to repair and later replace the sewer line began in August 1998 and was completed in October 1999.
After Hawaiian Dredging installed a 27-inch sewer line, the new clay pipe was found to be faulty, the suit says. Jervis said a video inspection revealed numerous cracks and dislocated joints and the work had to be redone.
In April 1999, raw sewage backed up into the kitchens and bathrooms of the businesses, shutting down the restaurants. Sewage seeped through a wall and into the dining area of Jaron's.
City Corporation Counsel David Arakawa said: "The city identifies potential problem areas within its waste-water system and prioritizes the work with respect to repairs and maintenance. ... We cannot predict precisely when a sewer line will fail."
Arakawa said Jervis, the contractor and the city have been involved in discussions to try to settle the claims.
"However, he has not provided us with a shred of documentation to justify his clients' damages," Arakawa said.
But customers at Bar-B-Q n' Things cannot help but notice the cracked ceramic floor tiles under the carpeting as they walk along the aisle between the two rows of booths.
Kay Han, part-owner, said her restaurant lost about a third of their lunch business.
"People don't have much time for lunch because they have to grab something quick," she said.
With the open-trench construction on Hamakua Drive, traffic had to be diverted and the nearby entrance to the parking lot was closed. Customers were confused and could not find the far entrance to the lot.
Business at Jaron's Restaurant suffered so much that owner Kern Rogerson said he was unable to pay taxes, which prevented him from renewing its liquor license.
"We intended to close the business on June 30 because we were unable to renew our liquor license." But a Kailua customer heard about it and gave the restaurant $100,000.
The money, which Rogerson intends to pay back, saved the restaurant from closure.
Rogerson shut it down for a week in July, paid the back taxes, got the liquor license renewed and made needed repairs, including replacing the carpets after 10 days of flooding caused by the sewer line problems.
But after reopening, Rogerson and the other businesses were notified by letter that the city would be doing more construction next July.
This time, however, the city promises to use micro-tunneling, trenchless digging to avoid the disruption of open trenches, and a traffic plan, Jervis said.
"They're gonna do it a second time the way they should have done it the first time," Owens said.