Although a Hawaii County Council committee will discuss the long-delayed reconstruction of Kalanianaole Avenue today, the public will not be privy to that discussion.
At a meeting of the Committee on Public Works and Mass Transit, Mayor Mitch Roth will present a status update regarding the Kalanianaole improvement project, which has been ongoing in some form or another since 2018.
However, that update will take place behind closed doors under executive session. While the remainder of the meeting will be viewable via a public livestream, the Kalanianaole update will be inaccessible.
Hilo Councilwoman Sue Lee Loy, who requested the update from Roth, said the situation is “fluid,” and that the timing of the meeting may overlap with facets of the county’s procurement process.
If Roth’s update includes details about pending contracts that are not officially approved, releasing those details to the public prematurely could interfere with actually awarding those contracts.
One such contract could be an emergency procurement of $930,000 awarded to Jas W. Glover Ltd. on Dec. 29. Public Works Deputy Director Steve Pause said that contract, awarded outside of the county’s typical procurement bid process, is an interim measure as the county seeks a new contractor to complete the project later this year.
Pause said the emergency procurement will fund continued maintenance of the construction site — from striping and barriers to water drainage management — for about four months. In the meantime, he said, DPW hopes to reopen bids later this month for the remainder of the project.
The county terminated its contract with the previous contractor, Goodfellow Bros., last month, shortly after the state Department of Transportation announced that it would be taking over maintenance of Kalanianaole Avenue starting in January. However, Pause said completing the project is still the county’s responsibility.
Construction on Kalanianaole Avenue, the primary artery between Keaukaha and the rest of Hilo, began in March 2018, and was initially scheduled to be completed by the end of that year. Since then, work on the project has been intermittent, with much of it stalled entirely for most of 2021 after it was determined that utility lines beneath the road could be damaged by the reconstruction.
In November, Public Works Director Ikaika Rodenhurst announced yet another delay, pushing the project’s completion date from February to August of this year.
The committee meeting will be viewable — although not the executive session regarding Kalanianaole Avenue — at 9:30 a.m. today at tinyurl.com/2s35uj4b.
Because Gov. David Ige temporarily suspended a requirement for public meetings to have an in-person component during the ongoing COVID spike, there will be no opportunity for members of the public to provide in-person verbal testimony. Anyone planning to submit verbal testimony must contact (808) 961-8255 to provide testimony via Zoom.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.