Delayed Ewa gym finally opens

The long-awaited Ewa Mahiko Gym opened to park-goers over the weekend, more than 18 months behind schedule and $600,000 over budget.

City officials say "deficiencies" by contractor 57 Builders Ltd. as well as upgrades sought by the Parks Department are to blame for most of the delays and added costs. The city is fining the contractor $26,000 for its share of the delays, mayoral spokes­man Jesse Broder Van Dyke said.

An official with 57 Builders said the company followed instructions and that city officials should have been more clear about what they wanted.

Originally scheduled to open in July 2011 with a price tag of $8.3 million, it was opened Saturday at a cost of $8.9 million following 17 change orders, according to figures provided by Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s office.

Ewa and Ewa Beach families say they are just relieved that the growing community finally has a gym.

City officials are calling the facility state of the art. It is on Ren­ton Road next to site of the old Ewa Sugar Plantation Mill in the heart of Ewa Villages.

It has a 1,440-square-foot gym that also functions as a multipurpose building with meeting rooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, office space and storage areas. There are two outdoor basketball courts, four tennis courts, two volleyball courts, lighting, accessible walkways and a 235-stall parking lot.

Karen Gionson said daughter Melisa’s AYSO soccer team, the Blue Blazers, was nudged out of its former practice field at Asing Park at the beginning of the year. "We were told it had too many users."

The team’s new home, next to the gym, is a mostly dirt field, but longtime Ewa Beach residents are used to that, she said.

Gionson said that as she drove past the gym on the way to work every day, "it looked open to me."

She praised new Councilman Ron Menor for getting the gym open.

The city awarded the contract to 57 Builders on June 19, 2009, and a notice to proceed was issued Dec. 21 that year. Then-Mayor Mufi Hannemann announced groundbreaking for the gym Jan. 11, 2010. A news release suggested its construction was timed to coincide with the then-recently opened Kapolei Parkway extension through the area.

Originally planned to open July 13, 2011, the city gave the project a revised completion date of April 23, 2012. The project was deemed substantially completed Aug. 31, 2012. Broder Van Dyke said the contractor was fined $200 a day for 130 days from the date of the April completion date to the substantial completion date of Aug. 31, he said.

Broder Van Dyke said the delays were "due to city-requested changes and contractor deficiencies."

Among 57 Builders’ issues were landscaping problems and improper grading, Broder Van Dyke said. "They’re still working on that."

Lighting in the gym was also improperly placed, he said. Outside, play courts were damaged by a ruptured waterline requiring the courts to be redone, and a ramp in one of the entrances was built without railings.

Additionally, "the floor of the gym was not acceptable to the Parks Department; however, it was to the specifications from the Department of Design and Construction, and so that one was the city’s fault," Broder Van Dyke said.

Jonathan Lin, 57 Builders’ project manager, said most of the change orders were not of the company’s doing, but were design changes made to satisfy the whims or altered requirements of the city.

For instance, he said, nothing in the drawings from the city shows railings for the ramp.

"After the January inspection, then they find out they needed this rail," Lin said. "You can’t fault us for stuff like that."

On the flooring issue, Lin said, city designers failed to consider that the weight of the bleachers could damage it.

The city also charged the project $74,000 in sewer connection fees, which was not anticipated, he said. "We had to pay that as part of getting a permit," Lin said.

He said 57 Builders is discussing the fines, known as liquidated damages, with the city. But Broder Van Dyke said the city has determined the amount to be $26,000 and will simply not pay that amount of the balance owed to the contractors.

"They can dispute that if they want," Broder Van Dyke said.

Menor and fellow freshman Ewa Councilwoman Kymberly Pine said they urged Caldwell to open the Mahiko gym as quickly as possible.

When told by Gionson and other constituents about the delays, "my response is that the delay is unacceptable," Menor said. He thanked Caldwell and other city officials for speeding up the opening.

Menor said he is looking into allegations that the contractor moved an underground waterline and broke a sprinkler, leading to the dry athletic fields that Gionson referenced. "It’s like a dust bowl," Menor said, adding that if there is any negligence, the contractor should be held liable.

Pine said, "It was curious to me why we had a facility that was built which wasn’t open for so long."

After the problems with 57 Builders, she wants the city to have rules or laws "that will ensure all contracts of the city have a strong record of completing projects on time and on budget."