Record repairs

Road crews have repaved 317 lane miles of crumbling city roads on Oahu so far in 2013, already more work done than in any previous year on the books, city officials say.

The news, part of a quarterly repaving report released Monday, bolsters Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s push to repair about 1,520 lane miles of degraded road in a five-year period.

For years Honolulu drivers — and their cars — have felt the pain from potholes and cracks. A report last week by a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit ranked the city’s roads the 13th worst in the country, estimating the average local driver spends nearly $600 a year in vehicle repairs due to the degraded conditions.

After taking office in January, Caldwell set a goal for 300 lane miles to be paved each year, and road crews contracted by the city still have nearly three months left to add to the first year’s record-breaking total.

But that goal, after years of neglect, also requires levels of unprecedented spending to be authorized by the City Council. Caldwell, who pledged to repair roads across the island as part of his campaign, requested $150 million for road repairs this fiscal year, but the Council appropriated $120 million.

Caldwell hopes the favorable report will persuade the Council to provide $150 million next year.

"There’s still a lot of lane miles out there that need to be repaved," he said during a media briefing Monday in a Mili­lani residential neighborhood as crews behind him repaved Kau­aka­puu Loop. "Every day we hear from people who say, ‘Good job, but do more. Do it faster. Make a difference.’"

Caldwell was joined in Mili­lani by Councilmen Ikaika Anderson and Stanley Chang, both of whom said they were impressed by the islandwide progress. Chang, who earlier was skeptical about whether the city could keep pace with spending all the millions allocated, said Monday that the Council looks forward to "increasing the commitment at the city level to improving our roads."

Many of the streets repaved so far this year have been relatively easy fixes, but the city anticipates tougher projects next year, Caldwell said. Crews will have to dig up more asphalt at greater depths and use cement to repair roads up on ridges, he added.

That potentially could limit next year’s total, making this year’s total important to help keep pace in the race to 1,500 lane miles, officials say.

And even with this year’s record-breaking pace, repaving crews have encountered bumps in the road — literally — that led to delays on some projects.

A notable example city officials point to is Wai­alae Avenue in Kai­muki, where workers were surprised to find a soft, spongy layer of pavement from water that seeped under the surface, forcing them to dig up more of the road than anticipated. The city originally thought work there would be done by the end of this year, but now it likely will be finished next year, Department of Design and Construction officials say.

Crews also encountered unexpectedly shallow gas and water lines, which held up work at various sites, including streets in Wahiawa, leading to delays, officials said. Department Director Chris Taka­shige said the city has a 10 percent contingency budgeted for repaving, and so far it has covered the delays’ extra costs.

Mililani resident Brenda Abe, who lives on Kau­aka­puu Loop, came outside Monday to film the commotion with an iPad tablet as Caldwell’s conference wound down and a rumbling truck slowly pressed a fresh coat of asphalt into the road.

She said she’s encouraged by all the recent paving in her neighborhood. But the real game-changer that she and other Mili­lani-area residents await is a smooth, freshly paved Mehe­ula Parkway free of cracks and potholes.

"That’s our main artery there — we need to get that road," Mili­lani-Mauka Neighborhood Board resident Dean Hazama said.

City officials overseeing the work said they expect to start repaving Mehe­ula by March. It’s taken a while for work to start because arborists must first help make sure the monkeypod trees lining the parkway aren’t damaged by the work, due to the roots under the roads, Caldwell said. The quarterly report released Monday anticipates the work there will be completed in June 2015.

"The people in Mililani, the roads are the biggest problem they talk about," said Mari­lyn Lee, a former state representative for the area who serves on the Mili­lani Neighborhood Board.

Mayor’s Road Report