$4.6 million
bump in road

Kauai officials learn the contractor
built the Koloa Bypass road
surface too thin

---

By Anthony Sommer
Star-Bulletin

LIHUE >> After waiting 22 months and spending $4.6 million to build the first new county road in decades, Kauai County had planned a festive grand opening of the Koloa Bypass on March 14.

The mayor's office even ran a contest to pick a name for the new road and settled on "Ala Kinoiki Way."

But a funny thing happened on the way to the ribbon cutting: A month before the road was to open, the county discovered the contractor, who already had been paid 96 percent of the project cost, had made the road surface too thin. The project has been shut down ever since.

This week a new contractor, paid by the company that posted a performance bond for the original contractor, will be meeting with county officials to set up a new timetable.

Meanwhile, Poipu residents organized by activist Monroe Richman have started a betting pool on the date Mayor Maryanne Kusaka actually will snip the satin. Cara's Cafe in Koloa is putting up a dinner for two. Contractor Steve Hashi will give anyone who guesses the correct date 75 percent off the cost of a kitchen or bathroom remodeling job.

Most guesses are well into 2002.

The Koloa Bypass is intended to help motorists -- tourists, resort workers and south shore residents -- on their way to and from Kauai's major resort district in Poipu avoid a perpetual traffic snarl in downtown Koloa, with its countless small shops catering to the visitor trade.

The first portion of the bypass leading north from Poipu is already open. But after zooming along on a thoroughfare, motorists find a barricade where the unfinished section begins. They are forced to wend their way through residential streets to reach the same old traffic jam in central Koloa.

The original contract went to Doreen L. Sanchez Rego Construction Co., a Kauai-based contractor, known locally simply as Rego Construction. The company counts the county among its major repeat customers.

Owner Doreen Sanchez did not return calls seeking comment. The company appears to be struggling financially. Last year the state filed a tax lien on it, and the company recently defaulted on another major project in Hanamaulu for the Kauai County Water Department.

The Koloa Bypass contract was for $4.8 million, with Rego to be paid in stages as construction was completed. The project began on May 17, 1999.

As of Jan. 31, Rego Construction had collected $4.6 million, or 96 percent of the contract price. Two weeks later, the county discovered Rego had been building an unusable road.

A report on random core samples delivered to the county on Feb. 13 showed 10 of 18 tests of the asphalt-treated base, which was supposed to be 4 inches thick, were too thin. Six of 19 samples of the asphaltic concrete road surface, supposed to be 2 inches thick, also were too thin.

County officials are debating whether to try to get any of the money back from Rego Construction. But they may have a problem.

According to county sources, the matter of possibly suing Rego Construction has been the topic of several closed-door sessions between the Kauai County Council and the county attorney's office.

It also has been the subject of some heated sessions between county and Rego officials wondering "who knew what and when did they know it?"

If the county, by its own lack of adequately inspecting the work as it went along, did not discover the problem until it was too late for Rego to fix it, the county may have hurt its case in a possible lawsuit.

The official county line is that Rego defaulted by not meeting the March 14 completion date.

But the underlying question is: Why didn't the county know until 22 months into the project that the road was too thin?

Alex Pascual, the county's project engineer on the road, concedes the contract specifications require the contractor to deliver a core sample for testing within 24 hours after every layer of base or surface material is applied.

But the county, even though it had an inspector at the job site every day, never enforced the requirement, Pascual acknowledges. "It was up to the contractor to decide when to take the samples and it wasn't done until nearly the end of the project," he said. "The state does it the same way."

Reliance National Indemnity Co., the surety firm that issued the performance bond, has selected Okada Trucking Co. of Oahu to finish the roadway.

Gavin Hubbard, who will be managing the project for Okada Trucking, said he is not yet sure whether an overlay can be applied on top of the roadway or if the whole road will have to be torn up and rebuilt.