Ala Wai dredging About 250 people, most of whom live near the Ala Wai Canal, turned out last night for an informational meeting about the dredging of the canal that is to begin Aug. 6.
plans unveiled
Water quality will be
under control, officials sayBy Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.comCity Councilman Duke Bainum got some laughs when he noted that "I ran for office in 1990 promising to clean up the Ala Wai. It's a harder job than I ever thought, but better late than never."
Neil Williams, vice president of American Marine Corp., the contractor for the $7.4 million job, made a presentation that included photographs of the equipment that will be used for the job, which is expected to continue until May.
The canal has not been dredged since 1978 and is so shallow in some spots that canoes drag bottom at low tide.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
A panel of politicians -- from left, state Sen. Les Ihara, Rep. Galen Fox, City Councilman Duke Bainum, Sen. Carol Fukunaga and Sen. Suzanne Chun-Oakland -- addressed public concerns last night over the proposed dredging of the Ala Wai Canal.
The first area to be dredged will be between the Ala Moana and McCully Street bridges. Because this area already is fairly deep, the work there is expected to take less than a month, he said.
The area where the company will be working the majority of the time will be the area from McCully Street to just past the convergence of the Manoa-Palolo drainage canal.
"A silt curtain will be around our operations at all times, to be sure we keep the turbidity inside the active dredging area," Williams said. There will be a passing area for canoeists to pass outside of the active dredging area, he said.
"It (the barge) will not stop on a dime," Williams said. "We've told all the users of the canal that we are not capable of stopping quickly."
He said the project's staging area will include a stationary barge, 110 feet long and 36 feet wide, at the edge of Ala Wai Yacht Harbor with an access ramp onto Magic Island. Generally, there will probably be a barge going from the canal to sea about every three hours. The boat pushing the barge will change from a canal-sized one to an ocean-going one at the staging site.
Signs will be posted at yacht clubs at the Ala Wai Harbor alerting boaters that the dredging barges will be passing through the harbor about every three hours when work is going on, Williams said.
Boaters also can listen to marine radio channel 68 for announcements of barge movements.
"We're going to suggest to canoe paddlers and others that use the canal to monitor that channel" and contact the contractor on channels 68 or 16 if they have questions, he said.
The work will be conducted 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. weekdays, Williams said.
Steen Weinold, a Waikiki resident and member of the board of governors of the Hawaii Yacht Club, said his main concerns about the dredging project are that water quality be maintained and that the noise not be too loud. He said he was satisfied from what he heard at the meeting that the water quality will be safeguarded and the sound would be tolerable.
Ala Wai Boulevard resident Margaret Milman also liked what she heard last night. "I feel more satisfied with the dredging plan than I expected to be," said Milman, who had some concerns about the project's noise.
Asked whether the sidewalks around the canal will be affected, Williams said that the machinery should not be closer than 10 feet from the edge of the canal.
Several people asked the state to try and find solutions to the silting of the canal between dredgings.
State Sen. Suzanne Chun-Oakland said she supports studies of bioremediation of dredge material that would use native plants to cleanse the water.
