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Kailua sewer job
set for new phase

Question: Does anyone know when the sewer work will be finished on North Kalaheo Avenue in Kailua? It's been going on for years with no end in sight. There aren't that many workers -- is that why it is taking so long? And on Saturdays, they start working before 7:30 a.m. and wake up the whole neighborhood.

Answer: The good news is that the current work -- from Kainui Drive to Dune Circle -- is expected to be completed by WestCon Microtunneling in March.

The bad news is that the next and, for the immediate future, last phase, is set to begin this month and take 15 months.

The city will be issuing a "notice to proceed for Feb. 22" to Frank Coluccio Construction Co. for work on the sewer line on Kalaheo between Dune Circle and Kailua Road, said Myron Fujimoto, branch engineer for the city Department of Design and Construction.

The long-term plan calls for "rehabilitating" the rest of the same sewer line from Mokapu Saddle Road toward the Kailua Treatment Plant, he said. But for now, "there's no time frame" on when that work will begin.

Once the phase from Dune Circle to Kailua Road is completed around the summer of 2006, a total of 9,400 linear feet of 48-inch sewer line will have been replaced at a currently estimated cost of $55 million, Fujimoto said.

The Kalaheo sewer project began in May 1999, and initially was to be "one project" that would take two years to complete.

"The intent was to start from Kainui Drive, going towards Kailua Road, from downstream of the sewer line working upstream," Fujimoto explained.

But the first contractor asked that the Kailua Road end of the project be done first, so as not to disrupt businesses in the area during the summer months. The city agreed.

After work was finished from Kailua Road to Wanaao Road, the contractor "started up on Kainui," but ran into problems with the underground work -- "they couldn't control the sand coming into the excavation" areas, Fujimoto said.

Because of that, the city decided to terminate the contract. It was a "termination for convenience," Fujimoto said.

Subsequently, the city revised the project bid for work from Kainui Drive to Kailua Road, but initially only had enough funds to do the work from Kainui Drive to Dune Circle. WestCon proceeded on that phase in April 2003.

Because of the difficulty of the underground work, "the duration is hard to predict," Fujimoto said, when asked why the project is taking so long.

The project utilizes microtunneling, which involves digging pits by "putting down jacking pit machines and installing the line by tunneling," Fujimoto said. Delays sometimes are caused when the microtunneling machine encounters an obstruction that causes it to go off alignment.

It's a slow process, Fujimoto acknowledged, but said it is less obtrusive than "tearing up the road" and putting in trenches.

"Typically, a good run might be about 50 feet a day," he said.

Last March, in answer to a similar question about the project, we were told the project was "a little behind schedule" because of delays associated with buried debris.

Regarding the Saturday start time, Fujimoto said the contractor is allowed to begin working at 7:30 a.m.

Celebrating freed monkeys

Members of the "Free The Monkeys" campaign, in conjunction with the nightclub that once exhibited three monkeys, are hosting a "Liberation Celebration" fund-raiser from 6 to 10 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20.

The event will be held at the Blue Tropix nightclub.

Tickets are $10 each, $5 of which will be donated to the Friends of the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo. The three squirrel monkeys now live in the Hilo zoo.

There will be live music by Tiki Taboo, free pupus, a table magician, silent auction and more, according to a press release from the "Free the Monkeys" group (for more information, see www.freethemonkeys.com).

Kokua Line noted the controversy over the monkey exhibit in the Aug. 22 and Dec. 16, 2004 columns.

Subsequently, the nightclub decided to remove the monkeys from an environment animal rights activists charged was psychologically abusive.

The monkeys were transferred to the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo on Jan. 19, with the help of the state Department of Agriculture. They joined a fourth monkey, "Mike Little-Man," who was sent there in November after being confiscated by state agriculture officials from a private home in Makiki.

The fund-raiser is being held at Blue Tropix as a way of showing "our gratitude" to the nightclub "for making the right decision to release the monkeys to a more suitable environment, and in a gesture of peace and good will," the release said.

"We hope that this event will remind people that compassion for animals begins with wanting what is best for the animals, and that two opposing sides can come together and work out their differences for the benefit of all," the press release said.

The monkeys can be viewed online at www.hilozoo.com/I_tour/sq_monkeys.htm.

Mahalo

To Times Super Market in Kahala, Beretania and McCully for having the trucks with reversible vending machines to recycle our containers. This makes me want to shop at Times even more. -- No Name

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