New Kapolei facility opens to train millwrights, others

A local construction industry organization has built itself a new facility to train more workers amid a Hawaii building boom that has been going for several years.

The Hawaii Carpenters Apprenticeship &Training Fund on Thursday opened the $16 million complex in Kapolei designed to provide the only local training for millwrights as well as expanded training opportunities for carpentry and drywall work.

Edmund Aczon, the organization’s executive director, said the new 46,000-square-foot facility in Kapolei Business Park was needed to train millwrights locally and because a 56,400-square-foot facility that opened nearby in 2009 couldn’t accommodate demand for the other specialty training needs of the industry.

“We’ve kind of outgrown that already,” he said.

Aczon said about 1,000 workers, including apprentices and journeymen, received training in the original facility annually. The new facility will enhance training opportunities, including for millwright work where workers used to have to be trained on the mainland.

Millwrights install, maintain and repair complex equipment including turbines, compressors, pumps, conveyors and monorails used in energy, automotive, aerospace, food processing and other industries.

The facility, which includes classrooms and work areas, took about a year to build.

Avalon Development oversaw construction that was carried out by general contracting firm Ralph S. Inouye Ltd.

The training organization is a partnership involving the nearly 7,000-member Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters, General Contractors Labor Association, Building Industry Labor Association, Wall and Ceiling Industry Association of Hawaii and other building contractors.

“We’re excited to provide this growing need and training to our members and prospective members looking to get into the construction trade,” Ron Taketa, co-chairman of the training organization’s board of trustees, said in a statement. “There continues to be a need for skilled construction and tradespeople as the industry has remained steady and there’s continued work in the pipeline.”