Work has begun on installing new anchors for zip line cables and shoring up poles along a course in Paukaa north of Hilo where a worker was killed and another critically injured Sept. 21 when a tower collapsed.
KapohoKine Adventures, owned by Tony DeLellis and Gary Marrow, hired an engineering firm, an architect and a contractor to correct apparent deficiencies that may have led to the accident.
The incident remains under investigation by police, the Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health Division and the county.
Soils engineer Paul Weber of Ola ka Aina said he analyzed the structures and the course, designed a new anchoring system and is overseeing installation by Foundation Mechanics, begun in late March. The work should take eight weeks.
KapohoKine, he said, submitted the plans to Hawaii County, and he will certify the work.
KapohoKine did not return calls to the Star-Advertiser.
GoZip Hawaii, a subsidiary of Experiential Resources Inc., installed the original zip lines, but a 217-page police report shows it did not follow plans on file with county Public Works Building Division.
The report, which includes investigation of possible criminal charges, reveals the anchors holding the guy wires securing the tower apparently pulled out of the ground. The anchors could not support the force of the tension of the cable affixed to the tower, causing the tower to collapse and the 2,300-foot line to go slack.
Ted Callaway, who was testing the line, was killed when he fell 100 feet into a gulch. Another worker, Curtis Wright, was injured when he fell 30 feet from the tower.
The tension from the zip line cables also pulled the main tower poles completely out of the ground, according to the report. They were buried five feet deep, but plans indicated they should have been embedded 7 1⁄2 feet deep, the report said.
Weber said he found the soil, known as Pahala ash, "soft all the way down."
His design calls for anchors 30 feet deep, going through the soil into bedrock. He is also adding metal pipes 20 feet deep to strengthen existing poles planted five feet deep. The poles hold up the platform of the towers, and each station has two or more poles, he said. A structural engineer assisted with calculations on cable tensions.
Architect William Foulk said he has been rehired by KapohoKine to ensure the existing towers are matched with the new anchoring system, and will modify the tower design if necessary.
"My scope of the work was to design a platform for people to load and unload onto the zip line that was completely independent of the zip line itself," he said. "My towers were not to be loaded with any zip lines."
However, they were, the report said.
