Rail leaders gathered Tuesday to tout progress on one of the most complicated and dramatic maneuvers needed to complete Oahu’s rail transit system, but they also acknowledged that construction is taking its toll on many businesses in Leeward Oahu.
After roughly half a year of highly visible work, rail’s elevated guideway now almost fully traverses the H-1 freeway, and rail officials say that means they won’t need any more H-1 closures in the westbound direction. The guideway still needs to stretch farther makai over the freeway to Leeward Community College, however, so eastbound closures are likely to persist for that work through September or October, they added.
"We talked about the fact that it was going to be probably the most dramatic feat of engineering that you’d see in this first 10 miles," Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Executive Director Dan Grabauskas said Tuesday, describing the towering "balanced cantilever" structure used to build the guideway across the freeway — and over thousands of drivers’ heads daily.
"We’re happy to say that we’ve now closed the gap between the two segments," he added, describing the linking of the guideway above the freeway.
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DAMAGE CLAIMS
Vehicle damage claims HART has received for work at the balanced cantilever? — the guideway being built over the freeway ?— and work along Kamehameha Highway:
>> The number of vehicle damage claims (both cantilever and Kamehameha Highway) is 60.
>> Of that number, 26 investigations are complete and 34 are pending.
>> The number of claims paid thus far is three, for a total of $1,363.53.
Source: HART
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Still, as Grabauskas, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and other rail leaders addressed the news media at Leeward Community College, nearby cars and trucks fought through crippling traffic in both directions caused mostly by rail utility relocation along crumbling roadways dotted with metal plates.
Paving the way for rail has been tougher than rail officials thought it would be, Grabauskas said. Various businesses along Farrington and Kamehameha highways are already paying the price.
On Tuesday, a couple of hours after the briefing at Leeward, Flamingo Restaurant Bakery and Cocktail Lounge owner K.G. Lee oversaw workers as they hauled equipment out the back door of the establishment’s Pearl City location, which closed Sunday after 35 years there.
Lee said business took a dive in the past year as construction ramped up. A key reason for the decline, he said, was what used to be a 10- to 15-minute drive to the popular restaurant for many of its longtime customers had ballooned to as long as an hour and a half from as close as the Aloha Stadium area.
Customers couldn’t stomach the traffic, and he couldn’t weather the drop in revenue despite taking out some $150,000 in loans to try to stay afloat, Lee said.
"I love this restaurant because I had longtime regular customers," Lee said. "Twenty to 30 years, (they) still come over here."
The business still has locations on Piikoi Street and at 99 Ranch Market.
Some area workers say rail isn’t affecting the businesses where they work, while others report severe downturns that arrived with the construction.
"It’s been really slow. Some days it’s at the point where no one comes in at all," said Sofia Jimenez, an employee at Island Style Internet Cafe on Kamehameha Highway in Pearl City. The lull coincided with rail work, she said.
Tanioka’s Seafoods and Catering, a popular Waipahu establishment, scaled back its weekday hours to help cope with the closure of a left-turn lane at Farrington Highway. The closure of a left turn on Kamehameha Highway for rail construction has caused similar upheaval for businesses at the Pearl Kai shopping center
HART staff say they regularly meet with businesses in the area and that they have a business-outreach program as well as an online offer program to encourage customers to visit those affected by rail. On Tuesday, Grabauskas said the semiautonomous agency works to consult businesses before construction hits their areas.
Still, Lee said he believed that HART’s efforts amounted to little more than "talk" in the effort to keep Flamingo open.
Part of the problem is that relocating utilities along Kamehameha Highway has been a "real challenge," Grabauskas said. The utility lines zigzag across the road in a "spaghetti network" instead of a straight line. The utility work along that major artery should last through the end of the year, and once column work commences on Kamehameha Highway, it should be less confusing and disruptive to drivers and businesses, he added.
Additionally, HART reports receiving 60 claims of damage to vehicles passing along Kamehameha Highway and below the balanced cantilever above H-1. Twenty-six of the investigations into those claims are complete, with 34 pending, according to HART. So far it has paid out three claims totaling $1,364.
"We fully realize that we are a step backwards right now for the two steps forward with construction," Grabauskas added Tuesday. "This project is being built on the central median of some of the most active roadways on the island."
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Star-Advertiser reporters Jayna Omaye and Kathryn Mykleseth contributed to this report.
