A three-year slog up and down Dillingham Boulevard with round-the-clock construction taking up one side of the major thoroughfare between Kalihi and Iwilei is set to begin in November.
The $496 million project — relocating underground utility infrastructure to accommodate city rail guideway installation — is scheduled to start Nov. 28, four days after Thanksgiving.
Representatives of Nan Inc., the project’s contractor, and the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation on Thursday held the first of what will be regular monthly public meetings to advise residents and business operators on what to expect.
“We want to get the information out … because we know we are impacting you,” Lori Kahikina, HART executive director and CEO, said during the online videoconference meeting attended by about 70 participants who could ask questions about the project where work includes slimming Dillingham Boulevard to two lanes from four 24 hours daily until projected completion in January 2026.
What can be expected is traffic congestion, noise that shouldn’t rise above regulated limits, bus stops in new spots and inconveniences to many businesses and consumers throughout the largely retail and industrial neighborhood, which also includes some residences.
The roughly 2-mile boulevard is a heavily used route to reach places that include Honolulu Community College, the Kapalama satellite city hall and driver licensing center, Costco, a Costco gas station, Kalihi Kai Elementary School, Kapalama Shopping Center, City Square Shopping Center, Waiakamilo Shopping Center and Oahu Community Correctional Center. Thousands of people have jobs in the area.
Bus ridership through the corridor in recent years averaged about 10,000 rides a day, and about 30,000 residents used the thoroughfare daily.
“We are asking for your support,” Joey Manahan, a HART spokesperson, said at the meeting. “It’s not going to be easy, but we do want to get the message out that Kahili is going to be open for business.”
During rail guideway construction several years ago from Waipahu to Aiea along Farrington and Kamehameha highways, a number of area businesses complained that revenue dropped dramatically, and some said they were forced to shut down.
For the Dillingham Boulevard work, the entire length of the boulevard will maintain two-way traffic but using only two lanes. No left turns will be permitted from Dillingham Boulevard onto cross streets. Left turns onto the boulevard may be restricted at times. Business driveways will remain open, though some temporary blockages could occur with advance notice. Also, there will be periodic closures of cross streets on the mauka side of the boulevard from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Mitch Mizokami, a Nan official, said the public should not anticipate work progressing block by block. Instead, work all along Dillingham Boulevard — from about Middle to Kaaahi streets — is expected to span the entire three years because of the mix of utility infrastructure that needs to be moved.
“The probability is that we will be working in front of every business for the duration of the project, because it has to do with the multiple utilities that are being relocated,” he said at the meeting in response to a question. “One day we might be be installing a 138-(kilovolt) duct bank. Tomorrow we might be installing telcom. The next day we might be moving a waterline. The next day we might be doing an AT&T line. There’s just so many utilities running through that corridor.”
Mizokami said one particular challenge will be work on Dillingham Boulevard at Kohou Street and Kokea Street intersections on either side of Kapalama Canal, under which utility infrastructure will be routed. He called the intersections, which are about 200 feet from each other, a “disaster” zone because of the existing traffic situation there.
Nan’s work will carry out a revamped and delayed plan for HART’s rail line through perhaps its most challenging area.
Initially, this section was to include three rail stations with the rail guideway running down the middle of Dillingham Boulevard. And utility relocation work was supposed to start in 2018. HART, however, had much trouble with designs, permitting and costs. That led to a revised plan shifting the guideway to the mauka side of the boulevard starting near Waiakamilo Road.
This “mauka shift” would require moving fewer underground utilities and putting underground only one of two 138-kilovolt electric transmission lines above ground on either side of Dillingham Boulevard, thus saving time and money.
A more recent cost- saving measure for HART was eliminating 1.25 miles of track and the last two stations in town, to make the $9.8 billion line 18.75 miles with a total of 19 stations, stretching from East Kapolei and ending in Kakaako instead of at Ala Moana Center.
Utility relocation work for the last segment, from Kaaahi Street along Nimitz Highway through downtown, then from Halekauwila to Cooke streets in Kakaako, began in August under a contract with Frank V. Coluccio Construction Co.
Finishing the shortened rail system is projected for 2031, though an initial segment between East Kapolei and Aloha Stadium could start operating in 2023.
The next meeting about Dillingham Boulevard work is scheduled for noon Nov. 23, and future meetings are set for every fourth Thursday of the month. Business owners can schedule one-on-one meetings with project representatives to discuss individual issues.
In addition to public meetings, project representatives take comments and can answer questions about the Dillingham Boulevard project 24 hours a day via a hotline, 808-566-2299.
Dillingham Boulevard utility relocation work
>> Start date: Nov. 28
>> Projected finish: January 2026
>> Cost: $496 million
What needs relocating
(Underground infrastructure in lineal feet)
>> Electrical: 40,600
>> Communications: 24,000
>> Sewer: 3,600
>> Drainage: 1,500
>> Water: 1,300
Source: Nan Inc.
How to stay informed
>> General information: honolulutransit.org
>> Dillingham meeting information: hart.2.vu/1
>> Weekly traffic/ construction updates: Text CCUR4 to 22828
>> 24-hour project hotline: 808-566-2299
>> Email inquiries: info@honolulutransit.org
Source: Nan Inc.
