20 new Handi-Vans, just 10 on the road

City transit officials appear to finally be gaining speed in approving Hono­lulu’s much-anticipated new Handi-Vans — months after the vehicles first started arriving on island, and as clients voice concerns about a recent fire that destroyed a van minutes after its passengers escaped.

Kalihi-based Soderholm Sales & Leasing Inc. has brought 20 new vans to the island since March 7, but only half have been fully licensed and cleared for use.

Most of those approvals came just in the past week, including two Friday.

The slow pace to replenish the city’s aging Handi-Van fleet has frustrated some of the 3,500 disabled and elderly passengers who rely on the service each day — as well as Soderholm company representatives. Soderholm Vice President Erik Soderholm says most of the vans that have landed on Oahu so far are suitable for use but that Oahu Transit Services inspectors, working on the city’s behalf, are unnecessarily dragging their feet over minor and sometimes arbitrary fixes before they grant the proper approvals.

City officials deny that, saying that larger quality-control and safety issues have tied up the new vans’ approvals.

"We never had this problem before," Soderholm said Wednesday.

The company has sold the city some 300 Handi-Vans, not including the latest models, going back to 1995, he said. Before the latest wave of Handi-Van replacements, he said, the vans were "accepted, delivered and put on the road in days, hours," adding, "These are taking months. It’s insane."

Soderholm representatives described what they saw as several minor details flagged by OTS inspectors after the vans arrived, including:

» A large quantity of Fiberglas shavings was found in an enclosed compartment of a van.

» A frame around a van’s docking light near the bumper was the wrong shade of white.

» A protective metal skirt for a condenser was not painted white like the rest of the van exterior.

» Felt ledges supporting radio equipment above the driver’s seat were of different widths by about a half-inch.

» Plastic screwheads on screws inside the van weren’t fastened properly. "It took longer to write this" in the inspection report than for company employees to lock the proper screwheads in place, company President Denise Soderholm said Wednesday.

The Soderholms said they think the hold-ups may be politically motivated, in part because they supported former Hawaii Gov. Ben Caye­tano, Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s opponent in the 2012 mayoral race, and they’re staunch opponents of the rail transit proj­ect that Caldwell and other city leaders are pushing to complete.

Mike Formby, director of the city Department of Transportation Services, called it "absurd" Friday that city officials would award a $10 million contract to the company only to hamper that contract’s prog­ress for political reasons. The new Handi-Vans, Formby said, were found to have larger quality-control issues during inspections beyond those flagged by Soderholm, such as:

» Torn rubber seals on a wheelchair access door.

» A bolt used to mount an air-conditioning unit pressing against electrical wiring.

» Hoses lacking the proper seals where they enter the floor of the van interior.

» Windows that don’t slide open properly in case of emergency.

"It varies by van. Those are the types of issues," Formby said Friday. "It’s our fiduciary obligation to make sure those vans meet specifications and quality-control standards."

Transit officials further want to avoid another fire such as the one two weeks ago that engulfed an 8-year-old van with 350,000 miles logged, moments after the driver, Georgette Chun, evacuated her two passengers. One of the passengers was in a wheelchair.

The van was old but hardly the oldest in the Handi-Van fleet.

City officials had hoped to have the full order of 99 vans completed by October. Now they’re not sure when it will be done.

A nationwide shortage of the popular Ford chassis used to build the vans is causing further delays, they say.