Officials embark on study to lower costs of $651 million Ala Wai flood project

Another study is in store for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ over-budget Ala Wai Flood Risk Management Project. This time it’s aimed at getting the 2-­decade-old project moving again.

The project, which goes back to a 2001 feasibility study, hit a roadblock in January when the Army Corps of Engineers confirmed that costs had nearly doubled to $651 million.

The higher price tag came after the agency made dramatic changes to the project, including adding a four-story pump station to the historic Ala Wai Canal, where controversial walls and berms already were planned.

Federal, state and local officials have balked at the ballooning costs, and now support conducting a “general reevaluation” to find a way forward that doesn’t exceed earlier allocations and is affordable for implementation and maintenance.

The project was funded for construction by the federal Bi-Partisan Budget Act of 2018 under the Long-term Disaster Recovery Investment Program with an authorized cost of just over $345 million. The state was expected to contribute $121 million for the project, which the city would maintain.

Honolulu District Commander and District Engineer Lt. Col. Eric Marshall said in a statement issued Thursday that the team is working in partnership with the city to find an alternate cost-effective means of reducing flood risk while balancing cost considerations with community and environmental impacts.

“A general reevaluation would provide an opportunity to reevaluate proposed alternative flood risk management measures to ensure we are being responsible stewards of our nation’s infrastructure by finding a solution that is more acceptable to federal, state, and local partners,” Marshall said.

Minerva Anderson, chief of public affairs for the Hono­lulu District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in an email that general reevaluations generally involve National Environmental Policy Act compliance, public involvement and community outreach as well as review.

“A general reevaluation could conceivably study the full range of storm events to identify a project that has federal interest, meaning that overall benefits must outweigh costs,” Anderson said. “The Ala Wai Canal Watershed has not recorded a 1% (100 year) storm, however the watershed experiences smaller events that still cause significant impacts.”

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said in a statement that he supports finding new solutions, even if risk reduction applied to smaller events.

“Ala Wai isn’t an option, it is a must do. A project with different scope could provide much needed risk reduction in the community,” Blangiardi said. “We have experienced significant impacts from past smaller events such as in 1967, 1988, 2004, and 2018. On a smaller scale, we experience the impacts of flash flooding on a more regular basis.”

Rick Egged, Waikiki Improvement Association president, said the risk of problematic to catastrophic flooding in the Ala Wai watershed is an ever-present danger.

“We support the USACE efforts to work with the community to develop an affordable scope of work that will protect the region as much as possible within budget constraints,” Egged said. “Doing nothing after all these years of effort should not be an option.”

Waikiki Neighborhood Board member Jeff Merz has been a strong advocate of the project but said he probably wouldn’t support changes that didn’t stave off a 100-year-flood.

“Look for efficiencies. Look for creative ways to finance this and get it done. But don’t cut corners by saying we’ll save money by reducing the efficacy of it,” he said. “If you do that, why bother? It’s like stopping rail at Middle Street. If you are going to do a project, do the full project so you get the most benefits.”

The Army Corps estimates that a 100-year flood in the watershed, which includes Waikiki, could affect 1,358 acres, damage 3,000 structures and cost more than $1.14 billion. The potential for damage on a massive scale has been the main driver of support for the project, which has met with some community resistance.

Sidney Lynch, president of Protect Our Ala Wai Watersheds, said the group blocked the 2017 plan for the project in court in 2019 when the state environmental court found that state and city officials were poised to violate a state environmental law.

Lynch said the group was still reviewing the Army Corps’ new plan, which was unveiled last year as an alternative to building detention basins and dams in six streams. Now the group is worried that efforts to downsize the project could revive the earlier plan to put intrusive structures in streams.

“If the Army Corps, in an attempt to scale back from the current $650 million plan to the original $350 million plan, is going to return to a plan to destroy six streams, we will see them in court,” Lynch said.

She said the group favors green methods of reducing flooding and would likely support a revised plan that reduces concrete elements such as the planned four-story pump house in the middle of the Ala Wai Canal and one that has no detention basins.

“We expect the Army Corps and city to fully inform the community of their plans as they are developed, not presented as a fait accompli,” Lynch said. “We request a community seat on any planning effort.”