Kokua Line
Kokua Line
Question: When the H-1 freeway was resurfaced about a year or so ago, they seemed to do only one lane, Koko Head-bound, near Likelike Highway. Some of the Ewa-bound lanes are not completed either. That short distance is a real rough area and never has been resurfaced. Are there plans to do that anytime soon? Additional H-1 resurfacing
planned for Kalihi areaAnswer: Resurfacing work for that area is targeted to begin later this year.
"That project is still in the design stage," said Gary Choy, head of highway design for the state Department of Transportation. "We're hoping to advertise that project by the end of May or June, and hopefully we'll get to the resurfacing by November."
The resurfacing will be done on both the Koko Head- and Ewa-bound lanes of the H-1 from Kalihi Street to the Middle Street/Fort Shafter area.
It's not known yet how long the project will take because other work, such as safety improvements, also will be done, Choy said.
To minimize the impact on traffic, night work will be scheduled, he said.
Meanwhile, it actually was about four or five years ago that a "skin patch" was put on that section of the freeway to repair some unraveling, he said.
Q: On Dec. 24, I mailed a package by priority mail from the Mililani Post Office. Knowing that security has slowed down the mail and it was in the midst of the holidays, I figured it would take a while to get to the East Coast, and it did. My parents did not receive the package until Jan. 5. The odd thing about it was that my mother said the package was postmarked Dec. 24, but the Honolulu shipping bar code read Dec. 31. Did my package actually sit at the airport for a week -- but once it left the island, it only took about four days to get all the way to the East Coast? Don't you find that odd?
A: Apparently, your package did sit in the U.S. Postal Service's Honolulu plant for a week.
The "bar code" you refer to is the shipping label the postal service puts on a package when it hands it off to a cargo company, said U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Felice Broglio.
"There was an error on our part where, for some reason, (the package) was not dispatched (to the cargo company) for one week," she said.
"We can only guess that, because not all items get on every flight every day, this particular item must have been pushed back and not rotated in the proper order," Broglio said.
A package normally is dispatched the same day it is received or on the next available flight. In your case, because the next day was Christmas, the earliest would have been Dec. 26.
Broglio acknowledged "the 31st is still too late, and we apologize for the delay."
As for delivery service on the mainland, the postal service is still trying to get back to the pre-Sept. 11 norm, struggling with "a lot of issues" dealing with staffing, scheduling and limited plant space, she said.
However, the postal service has expanded the limited cargo contract it had with FedEx, which was implemented a month before the terrorist attacks, she said.
Mahalo
To a very kind woman who found my son's passbook and Christmas money, which he was going to deposit at American Savings Bank. She found it in Aina Haina and returned it to the bank's Kahala branch. She didn't leave her name, but we wanted to thank her for her kindness and honesty. -- L. Lee
Got a question or complaint?
Call 529-4773, fax 529-4750, or write to Kokua Line,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu 96813. As many as possible will be answered.
Email to kokualine@starbulletin.com