Kiewit defies environmental laws, suit says

In the latest whistleblower lawsuit to be filed in relation to Honolulu’s rail project, a former Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. manager alleges the firm failed for years to adequately follow environmental laws while building the line’s first 10 miles to Aloha Stadium.

Thomas Ho worked as an environmental compliance manager for the island’s rail project from 2009 until May 2015 when Kiewit fired him, according to a lawsuit filed last week in state court. Ho’s job was to ensure Kiewit adhered to noise and waste-disposal requirements as it built the westernmost elevated guideway around Farrington Highway, and that the firm’s crews worked properly in “ecologically sensitive” areas and sites with endangered species, among other duties.

The suit claims that local Kiewit supervisors repeatedly dismissed and downplayed his efforts to keep the firm compliant and that Kiewit violated Hawaii’s Whistleblower’s Protection Act in eventually letting him go. It seeks unspecified compensation for damages.

Kiewit was supposed to have two such environmental compliance managers, with as many as three support staff members for each, but Ho was the only manager and his supervisor “continuously ignored” his requests to bring on more compliance workers, according to the suit.

Ho’s attorneys, Michael Green and Glenn Uesugi, weren’t available for comment Wednesday.

Kiewit declined to comment. “We don’t discuss pending legal or personnel matters,” the company said in a statement emailed Wednesday by a spokeswoman.

Ho’s suit said he was later roped in to handle compliance for the Kamehameha Highway stretch and the Pearl City-based rail operations center as well. It describes instances in which Ho faced resistance from his bosses when trying to get Kiewit to properly dispose of hazardous materials or follow noise ordinances, and includes an account of one in which he and others had to falsify documents to justify Kiewit having worked in an area where they weren’t supposed to be.

It states that Hawaii Department of Transportation inspectors flagged Kiewit for improper disposal of excess concrete, oil leaking from machinery into the ground, and noise violations along the Kamehameha guideway site.

According to the suit, Kiewit supervisors questioned whether Ho was working sufficient hours based on GPS records of his work-assigned truck, but Ho said that he often left that truck at home while on the job. Eventually, Ho and his supervisors agreed he would be transferred to a high school construction site in Kapolei not affiliated with the rail project, according to the suit.

He suffered a back injury while moving his office, and then got in a protracted workers’ compensation battle with Kiewit before getting fired, according to the suit.

Ho’s suit alleges the project has “many” dirt stockpiles that still aren’t properly secured against wind and rain at rail construction sites, violating the federal Clean Air and Clean Water acts.

It cites a July 22, 2014, email regarding residents complaining about “dust blowing into their homes” and a mandate from Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Executive Director Dan Grabauskas to have the problem “dealt with immediately.”

The day prior, on July 21, 2014, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser emailed HART about several large strips of dirt near Aloha Stadium — each about 30 yards long and 5 feet tall — after residents of the nearby Puuwai Momi public housing complex complained of dust blowing into their homes when the piles appeared. HART’s then-spokeswoman Jeanne Mariani-Belding told the paper that Kiewit would secure those piles.

Other allegations in the suit include:

>> In 2013 supervisors reduced Ho’s three-hour employee training program for environmental compliance to about three minutes, the suit alleges.

>> Ho alleges that a Kiewit supervisor asked him in 2014, “How much money do we have to lose to make it acceptable to you to be out of compliance for just a little while?” The question was asked, the lawsuit contends, after Ho had told his bosses that Kiewit was violating its noise permits along Kamehameha Highway.

The city awarded Kiewit a $482.9 million contract in 2009 to build the first six miles or so of guideway. Delays and change orders have increased that amount to $647.8 million as of May, according to HART. The firm was also awarded a $372 million contract to build the next stretch to Aloha Stadium. That contract now stands at $389 million, according to HART.

The Kiewit Kobayashi Joint Venture secured a $195 million contract in 2011 to build the rail operations center. Delays and change orders have increased that contract to $274 million, according to HART.

It’s not the first time Honolulu’s rail project has faced a whistleblower suit against one of the main firms building the transit system. Last year a former Ansaldo Honolulu JV rail construction safety manager filed a suit alleging that the firm violated its contract with the city as well as state safety laws. The former manager, John McCaughey, alleged that Ansaldo had hired him to exclusively oversee safety at its rail construction sites, but that once he took the job the firm repeatedly gave him tasks unrelated to the project.

In March a U.S. district judge dismissed McCaughey’s suit, ruling that he did not show sufficient evidence that the rail operator forced him to leave his job. Ansaldo in May released a statement saying it “considers the protection of Health, Safety, and Environment a fundamental corporate responsibility.” Meanwhile, rail officials have repeatedly expressed concerns that Ansaldo has not filled key staffing positions.

Star-Advertiser reporter Sophie Cocke contributed to this story.

Kiewit whistleblower lawsuit by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd