QUESTION: Whatever happened to plans to repair the roof of Farrington High School’s auditorium, which collapsed last year?

ANSWER: The Department of Education said it is moving forward with efforts to repair the Farrington auditorium and that the facility could be ready for use next year.

Ray L’Heureux, DOE assistant superintendent for the office of school facilities and support services, said the department is about a month into the design phase and is trying to get the project done “as fast as possible.”

Repairs are estimated to cost $7 million to $10 million, instead of the $20 million to $30 million it would take to tear down the building and build a new one.

“The building is structurally sound, so we don’t have to knock it down,” L’Heureux said. “We don’t have to put up four walls, but we do have to replace pretty much everything else.”

In the meantime, the school is holding assemblies in the school library, cafeteria and gym to accommodate large numbers of students. Language classes and behavioral counselors once housed in the auditorium are sharing space with other classes while three portable rooms are being prepared, Farrington Principal Al Carganilla said.

New Hope Christian Fellowship, which had been renting the auditorium for services since 1994, now holds its services at the New Hope Ministry Center on Sand Island Access Road.

On Nov. 23, a 40-foot section of roof on the 57-year-old auditorium collapsed during a brief but heavy rainstorm. One person was inside but was not hurt.

An analysis by the structural engineering firm Kai Hawaii found that the No. 2 truss, which supported cantilevered lighting and sound systems, was “completely underengineered” for the load it was bearing, L’Heureux said. “No one can explain why it didn’t fail in the 1970s versus 2012, but because it was just that one truss that failed, the rest of the structure is sound.”

The roof had been inspected in April 2012 and was found to be “unremarkable,” L’Heureux said. “You would never know that the tie-ins for that particular truss in that wall were underengineered until they were on the floor, exposed.”

The DOE announced last December it would also inspect similar auditoriums, gyms and other buildings constructed around the same time as Farrington’s at Kaimuki High, McKinley High, Roosevelt High, Central Middle, Kawananakoa Middle, Castle High, Pearl City High, Wheeler Middle, Hilo High, Honokaa High & Intermediate and Baldwin High. Those buildings were “found to be OK,” L’Heureux said.

He added that the DOE continues to do annual roof inspections that were in place before the collapse occurred. He noted that the Farrington roof collapse was an anomaly and does not indicate that the annual inspections are insufficient.

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This update was written by Marcie Kagawa.

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