Back on March 13, a reader questioned the dangerous driving conditions during a long repaving project along Waialae Avenue in Kaimuki.
As I wrote at the time, the roadwork hit the
news last month when cars were bottoming out in a dip near 12th
Avenue, where new asphalt was put down while the ground underneath was still
too wet, causing the new pavement to buckle.
That post, and the comments it drew, caught the attention of Mayor Kirk Caldwell.
A response from Caldwell’s office was forwarded in an email by Jay Parasco, a communications specialist for the mayor.
It consists of the original reader’s description, with responses from the city inserted (which appear in blue italics).
I have to commute to school every
day via Waialae Avenue. As far as I can tell, it is
one of the worst roads in the city. It has been under construction, by my count
for 10 months, with little progress.
This street has become incredibly
dangerous because of the lack of lane markers in some places and the numerous
large potholes. It is even more dangerous for those of us, like me, that ride
mopeds. Cars are constantly swerving to avoid obstacles and holes, and it is
difficult to steer a moped on such rough roads.
The contractor,
Jas. W. Glover, Ltd., is responsible for maintaining temporary pavement markers
or markings during construction. The city has been monitoring the
project and repeatedly reminds Glover of their obligation to provide temporary
markers, just as we do with similar contracts.
Glover
has been painting temporary lane markers and using adhesive pop-up lane
markers, however, vehicular traffic does remove these temporary markings.
If you notice an unmarked lane or pothole, please contact Glover at
591-8977. Motorists (and moped riders) are advised to use caution when traveling
through the work area. An alternate route, such as traveling on Harding
Avenue, may be a consideration.
In my opinion, it’s likely that
someone will get into a fatal accident because of the slow pace of construction
and irresponsible manner in which it is being conducted (e.g. leaving large
holes in the street from night construction without marking them).
If you
notice a safety hazard, please contact Glover at 591-8977. The pace of construction has been
slower than anticipated due to a number of “wet spots” below the road’s
surface. Repaving these segments
of the road require digging deeper than normal to rebuild a solid foundation
for the new driving surface. In
fact, it was a wet spot that contributed to the dip near 12th Avenue
that you referenced.
On the other hand, the street on
which I live in Aina Haina
was repaved last week. Nearly all the side streets in Aina
Haina are being repaved, though they are not in a
terrible state of disrepair, nor do they have high traffic volume. One might
also wonder why Kalanianaole highway is not being
repaved first.
Kalanianaole
Highway is under the jurisdiction of the state. Mayor Caldwell has called for repaving 300 lane miles of
city roads a year for the next 5 years to bring all of Oahu’s unsatisfactory
roads into good condition. The
city’s pavement management program accounts for utility and other projects that
require work to be done below grade.
Streets
in good condition, but surrounded by failed roads, will be repaved along with
the neighboring poor roads to place the entire area on the same repaving cycle,
which saves money in the long-term.
I wonder how the road construction
in the city is being planned; how are resources being allocated; and is this
being done in the safest, most efficient matter? Obviously this is a matter
that affects every resident’s convenience in their commutes. However, as I
stated earlier, I think it can also relate to life-and-death safety matters.
Any insight you could shed on this matter, either through your blog or
personally, would be greatly appreciated.
As
mentioned above, the city’s pavement management program targets entire areas
rather than send trucks and crews out to repave individual roads, saving money
through scale. Some projects
experience unanticipated setbacks and Waialae Avenue
is a prime example.
When a
project is not completed within the contracted period of time, an extension is
requested by the contractor. City
engineers review the project and determine whether or not the delay was caused
by the contractor or circumstances such as weather or wet spots. If the delay is due to the contractor,
a penalty will be assessed. In the
case of Waialae Avenue, the delay was not found to be
caused by the contractor and no penalties were levied.
The City
& County of Honolulu’s road repaving schedule is available here: http://www1.honolulu.gov/ddc/streetlistweblayoutjanuary2014.pdf. Last year, the city repaved a record
398 lane miles of our roads and, as of March 14, we have repaved 92 lane miles
in 2014. Our roads are being
repaved and people are taking notice, island-wide.
Again,
please report any potholes, unmarked lanes, or other safety hazards to the
contractor, Jas. W. Glover Ltd., at 591-8977. We appreciate your patience during this major project and
thank you for sharing your concerns.
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+1 to Caldwel’s office for responding.
The Administration’s press officer regularly circulates to all senior staff critical news stories from the local media, including this blog. Some of the stories include in the news roundup are quite critical of either the Mayor or the City. Very often in cases like this one, there will be a followup request for investigation and reporting on the situation.
The Mayor’s response bothers me. Essentially the city is just punting to the contractor telling the public to complain to the contractor not the city. However, these are city streets which are the city’s responsibility. The city is the one who hired the contractor, is responsible for overseeing the contractor and making sure that the job is done correctly. The public should not be doing the job of city inspector or contract compliance officer.
Yes, +1 to the city for responding but -5 for evading responsibility and poor contract management.
Hey, it only took two weeks for the mayor’s flunky to send you a useless response punting to the city’s contractor. That’s remarkable!
But give the mayor a break. He has been so very busy hob-nobbing in the Philippines on your tax dollars, taking ridiculously goofy tourist snapshots for his Facebook page and all.
https://www.facebook.com/MayorKirk/photos/pb.349767801803007.-2207520000.1396159507./531730320273420/?type=3&theater
Anyway, he inherited this mess from Harris, along with some malodorous dregs from the Harris money-boy barrel.
“Kalanianaole
Highway is under the jurisdiction of the state.”
And so is Kamehameha Highway, usually. But I think I read somewhere that right now stretches of that highway and Farrington are under the jurisdiction of the city, temporarily, in order to build rail. If what I think I read is correct, I wonder when it was that the city/HART took over the highways? In particular, I wonder whether it was before the event described below took place?
http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/20140215_Woman_pedestrian_killed_on_Kamehameha_Highway_in_Aiea.html
“A woman pedestrian hit by a vehicle on Kamehameha Highway has died, Honolulu police said.
Traffic Division Lt. Robert Towne told KITV News that weather could be a factor in the crash, along with reduced visibility.”
khon2.com/2014/02/15/pedestrian-killed-crossing-kamehameha-highway-in-pearl-city/
But according to some comments made on khon’s website in response to their coverage of this tragedy, there may have been another factor.
“look at the area where there has been damage…like someone went thru the fence recently….not this fatality thou. She may have gone thru that puka and come out the other side and then made the attempt to cross..” –critiq
There is also a comment that comes close to what I understand to be the primary reason the fence was put up on the median of Kamehameha Highway.
“This fence goes all the way down to Waimano Home Road in Pearl City on the grassy median areas. Several people died crossing Kamehameha Hwy. over the years, so, then the wire was put up to prevent people from doing this.” — solos10
In the under 60 second video at http://www.kitv.com/news/hawaii/Woman-killed-by-car-in-Aiea/24510320 the damaged area of the fence with a gap through which the victim may have crossed, or intended to cross, is visible with police tape stretching across it.
If she did cross, or intended to cross, Kamehameha Hwy. using that opening in the fence, it seems to stand to reason that if that damaged area had been blocked off, even in makeshift fashion, perhaps with the plastic orange construction fencing currently being used on much of that highway in the Pearl City area where rail is being built, what happened to her may have been prevented.
I’m not sure whether it was the State or the rail project that was responsible for the area at the time of the accident, but it’s a shame that no one recognized the immediate need to block off that opening. It may be that whoever was in charge was unaware of the history of the area and the importance of the barrier to protect people from the combination of themselves and circumstances as they sometimes are in that area.
I’m not at all sure how much fault, if any, the city’s rail project or the state bears for what happened to 20-year-old Cherish Samson. At the least, it does seem like an opportunity to enhance public safety lost.
Discussion of the danger posed by the way the roadwork on Waialae Ave. is being carried out and reflecting on the tragic subject of my previous comment brings to mind something I remember from the city’s request for a second Letter of No Prejudice (LONP) from the FTA, the granting of which allowed the rail project to proceed with limited construction activities without having to wait until after receiving a full funding grant agreement.
This LONP document can be viewed here:
http://www.slideshare.net/civilbeat/hart-requests-fta-lonp
On page 9 of the request for approval to start work early the city wrote the following:
“Optimal construction sequencing is also important to HART in order to minimize traffic impacts to the public. Should this LONP 2 request not be approved, the work would require overlapping construction along the major highways and arterials creating additional major traffic disruptions and putting public safety at risk along the already congested corridor.”
My recollection is that the second Letter of No Prejudice allowing some rail work to be performed ahead of receiving a full funding grant agreement was issued by the FTA, and so one would assume that the early start allowed the rail project to avoid “putting public safety at risk.”
Since then, however, the rail has been delayed for other reasons.
Page 6 of the rail project’s request for a LONP states the following:
“The duration for the LONP 2 request is for a 12-month period, which assumes 9 months from entry into FD plus a 3-month schedule contingency period.”
Wasn’t rail, before its recent restart, delayed for a time period similar to the 12-month period described above?
Does this suggest that risks and problems similar to those the city sought to avoid with the LONP 2 may now be encountered anyway? Or has a new technology that did not exist at the time of the LONP request been invented that can make up for long delays? Or was there another way to do things that simply did not occur to any of the experts employed by the multibillion dollar project until coming to someone’s mind relatively recently?
The city should provide a thorough explanation of how problems and danger similar to those they warned the FTA of, problems and danger that the city said would be the “required” consequence of not receiving authorization to begin work early, are now being avoided after the recent lengthy pause in construction.
Until a clear explanation is received I will continue to wonder — is the rail project currently being built in a way that requires “putting public safety at risk”? And if it is, what exactly are the dangers we face, and what can we do to assist in protecting ourselves?
And really, why contemplate putting public safety at risk at all over this rail project? Why was safety ever put on the table? Is it worth risking harm to people in order to achieve “on time and on budget”?