City beats 5-year goal for repaving aging streets

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s campaign to repave Oahu’s weathered and worn roadways recently surpassed its ambitious five-year goal, officials announced Friday.

At a news conference at the top of St. Louis Heights, site of the city’s latest repaving project, Caldwell and his lieutenants said the city repaved 466 lane-miles this year, bringing the administration’s five-year total to 1,774 lane-miles.

That exceeds the 1,500 lane-mile target Caldwell set when he was elected mayor in 2013.

“Really, this should be an ongoing, forever effort, and it should never be allowed again to get to the point where it was when I came into office,” Caldwell said over the rumble of paving machines operating near the corner of Robert Place and Frank Street.

A 2012 study found that 43 percent of Oahu’s 3,517 lane-miles were substandard, and Caldwell made smoothing Oahu’s dilapidated roads one of the pillars of his election campaign.

Since then the city has spent more than $550 million in an effort described as making up for decades of road-care neglect.

In addition, over the last three years, nearly 200 lane-miles of roadway have been treated with slurry seal, a mixture of water, asphalt emulsion and crushed rock. Nearly 680 feet of roadway have received rubberized crack seal. The techniques are designed to extend the life of paved streets.

The recent paving progress is evident in the number of potholes the city is filling lately, Department of Facilities Maintenance Director Ross Sasamura said.

While city workers filled 48,000 potholes in 2013, he said, so far this year they’ve had to take care of only about 23,000.

“There’s definitely a downward trend,” said Sasamura, who encouraged people to continue calling the city’s pothole hotline at 768-7777.

Paving roads is not cheap in Hawaii, officials pointed out. Mark Yonamine, deputy director of the Department of Design and Construction, noted that Hawaii faces higher-than-average road upkeep expenses due to constant temperatures, sunlight and exposure to ultraviolet radiation that causes pavement to age faster.

While the city is making progress smoothing streets, some of the island’s busiest roadways continue to be a challenge for vehicle suspensions. Those include the freeways and highways that fall under the maintenance responsibility of the state.

Caldwell said the city’s effort isn’t just about paving the streets most people drive. Subdivisions and communities across the island have experienced road pavement projects in recent years, he said.

Even so, some major thoroughfares still need to be repaved, he said, and the plan is to continue repaving even though all of the roads that were identified as substandard five years ago have been repaved.

“We’re not going to be slowing down,” the mayor said.

Areas expected to get attention in 2018 include Aiea Heights, Campbell Industrial Park, Kalaeloa, Manoa and downtown Honolulu. Officials also hope to resolve some disputes with property owners in Kakaako so some dilapidated private roads can be paved, the said.

In the St. Louis Heights project, every street in the sloping neighborhood will be repaved, from the top of the hill down to Waialae Avenue. The project is expected to be completed by summer.

“We hope the public will be patient and understanding as we continue on with our repaving efforts,” Sasamura said.