COURTESY OF CITY AND COUNTY OF HONOLULU
More than half of the emergency bypass system along the Ala Wai Boulevard in Waikiki has been dismantled. Workers cut up 900 feet of pipe between Walina Street and Seaside Avenue, then loaded the pipes and pumps onto trucks and temporarily relocated the equipment to a construction yard on the mauka side of the Ala Wai Canal.
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Ala Wai gets some parking spaces back
Niu Valley sewage work set for ’08 finish
Workers removed more than half of a temporary sewer pipe along the Ala Wai Boulevard, freeing up about 30 valuable parking stalls this week, as the city continues its emergency project to fix the aging sewer system in Waikiki.
"It's another step closer to the completion of the project," said Craig Nishimura, deputy director of the city Department of Design and Construction.
After barricading the right lane of the Ala Wai Boulevard since July 2006, crews last week began dismantling about 900 feet of sewage pipe and will reopen the road between Walina Street and Seaside Avenue.
"We have a definite parking problem in Waikiki," said Bob Finley, chairman of the Waikiki Neighborhood Board. "A lot of the residents do need the parking stalls on Ala Wai and they're all happy to see (some of) them come back."
The right lane of the Ala Wai Boulevard will remain closed between Seaside Avenue and Lewers Street with about 750 feet of the exposed pipe serving as an emergency backup.
Construction to install an emergency bypass sewage system in Waikiki began in May 2006, two months after more than 40 days of intense rain ruptured an aging 42-inch line, prompting city officials to divert 48 million gallons of raw sewage into the Ala Wai Canal.
To avoid a catastrophe similar to last year's, which shut down Waikiki beaches for a week and spurred several environmental lawsuits against the city, officials increased household sewage fees to pay for the emergency system in Waikiki and other wastewater projects around the island.
"We're happier that we didn't have didn't have another sewage spill," Finley said.
The project in Waikiki involved building temporary pipes and permanent systems. So far, the city has spent $40 million with no estimated end date planned, Nishimura said.
The city built two "microtunnels" under the canal that move wastewater out of Waikiki to a pumping station in Ala Moana Park that then sends it to the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Engineers are designing a permanent underground line that will connect the microtunnels. Nishimura estimates that construction could begin in early 2009.
Once that line is finished, workers can remove the temporary pipe now at the bottom of the Ala Wai Canal that moves wastewater out of Waikiki.
Rick Egged, president of the Waikiki Improvement Association, said residents are looking forward to when the project is completed, though he understands the inconvenience is necessary to avoid another sewage spill.
"We'd like to see the pipes and pumps removed from Ala Wai Boulevard," Egged said. "It slightly diminishes the whole product to have that so visible. But it's relatively minor in the whole scheme of things."
Niu Valley sewage work set for ’08 finish
Star-Bulletin staff
The city expects to complete a $9 million sewer line replacement job in Niu Valley by early next year.
Crews should remove the temporary line running on the Kalanianaole Highway median by next month, said Craig Nishimura of the city Design and Construction Department. Construction will stop during the holiday season.
Pumping sewage through the permanent underground line between Kawaikui Beach Park and the Niu Valley Wastewater Pump Station will mark the end of the project that began last summer after several spills in 2005.
In the meantime, the city is continuing work on its large sewer improvement project on Kapiolani Boulevard, which includes water line upgrades. Officials say motorists should use alternate routes because streets near the around-the-clock work site from Ward Avenue to Kalakaua Avenue will be temporarily closed as crews move from one section to the next.