Producers for Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s news conference this week could have been more mindful of the racket the props on his street stage would generate.
As it was, the mayor had to holler to be heard as brawny trucks unloaded oily gobs of asphalt and clunky pavement rollers and other heavy road equipment growled behind him.
The appearance was more elaborate than Caldwell’s performance just after he took office last month when he donned dungarees and an old T-shirt to get down and dirty to fill a pothole in Kalihi with his own two hands and a shovel.
The mayor can’t be faulted for his public displays. A good part of a politician’s job is to make sure constituents know what’s being done. City residents welcome the attention he is giving to one of the most chronic headaches of life in Honolulu, and maybe won’t begrudge too much spending $150 million a year for the next five years to smooth their rides around the island.
Still, that’s a lot of money, no matter its oblique sourcing through bonds that taxpayers will have to repay. And the questions of efficient use of the money and of the long-term benefits of the project remain.
Cracked pavement and pukas in the roads are not only unsightly and damaging for automobile axles.
They present risks as drivers try to maneuver around them. Right outside City Hall on busy Punchbowl Street, for example, a rather sizable pit has unsuspecting motorists jamming on their brakes while drivers well acquainted with its jagged edges steer out of their lane, causing some close calls with cars in adjacent tracks.
After years of deferred maintenance, the streets of Honolulu are in bad shape. But even if the city had been more diligent about repairs, even after Caldwell’s five-year project is completed, roads will still be messed up because wear and tear is incessant.
The city may do better by investing some of the $150 million in exploring improved methods, procedures and materials that will cut into the need for constant repairs and patches. A quick scan of the Web shows other states and counties changing how they pave and a myriad of products that last longer. Officials could seek local experts familiar with island weather and other conditions to research the problem and come up with more suitable blueprints.
Bureaucratic inefficiency also appears to hamper repairs. City Council member Ann Kobayashi was hesitant to get on Caldwell’s steamroller, pointing out that even with $100 million in the bank, road work is slow going because a contractor awarded multiple repair jobs did not have enough workers to do the jobs. A bit more diligence before the contract was signed would have put more pavement on the ground.
At his news conference, the mayor again emphasized that his administration isn’t going to be about “sexy” issues like new parks and new buildings, that what people are concerned about, what they expect, is having their garbage and bulky items hauled away on schedule, that trash cans at parks are emptied, that sewage systems don’t malfunction and spill into streams and ocean.
They also expect these basic municipal services to be provided without elaborate presentations and props.
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Cynthia Oi can be reached at coi@staradvertiser.com.
