Question: I drive by the Honolulu Police Department headquarters every morning and see that the expensive multilevel parking structure next to it still hasn’t opened. Why? The Alapai Transit Center bus depot on the street level is operational. I understand civilian police workers won’t be allowed to park there. They will still have to park at the Blaisdell Center and walk to work. So who will be allowed to park there?
Answer: The $20-million, five-story, 406-space parking garage above the Alapai Transit Center, which opened May 25, is reserved for employees who will work in the Joint Traffic Management Center, which has yet to be built.
The center will bring together the traffic management components of the city’s and state’s transportation departments, as well as the Police, Fire and Emergency Services departments to provide coordinated management of traffic operations and incidents.
No one is using the parking garage currently; it is not available for public parking.
However, the city administration is seeking to amend the ordinance to include the center’s parking garage as a designated employee parking area, said Wayne Yoshioka, director of the city Department of Transportation Services. “This is needed before we can charge for employee parking.”
A bill to amend the ordinance will be submitted to the City Council in August and, barring any objections, is expected to be passed in October. At that time, about 140 employees from HPD and Transportation Services who will eventually work in the center can begin parking in the new structure, Yoshioka said.
Other future employees of the center would not find it convenient now to use the parking structure, he said.
There may be some surplus parking after center employees are accommodated. Some of this is being held in reserve for the Emergency Operations Center, currently in the basement of the Fasi Municipal Building.
Remaining parking might be available for non-center employee parking, Yoshioka said.
“Whether this is allowable will depend on an opinion we are soliciting from the Federal Transit Adminstration, since federal funds were partially used to acquire the property” for the garage, he said.
This question should be answered by fall, he said.
Meanwhile, the traffic center building is under design. Construction bids are expected to go out next summer. If there are no protests on the accepted bid, work should begin late next year, and the building will be operational sometime in 2015, Yoshioka said.
The construction time will be long because of the need to install specialized equipment, he said.
Question: My secretary travels weekdays from Kunia to Honolulu on TheBus. She is 74 years old and catches TheBus at the brand-new Alapai Transit Center. The bus rides are long, and the wait for the return bus home can be long, too. Why are there no restrooms for passengers at this new terminal?
Answer: We received similar complaints when the Wahiawa Transit Center opened last year. The answer, then as now, is that there’s no money — not to build the restrooms, but to hire security to watch over them (see is.gd/TPpXfK).
Because vandalism is a problem at many transit centers with restrooms, no new centers have them unless security is available, said Transportation Services Director Wayne Yoshioka. “To provide security at all of our transit centers is cost prohibitive.”
The nearest available public restrooms are across Alapai Street at the Fasi Municipal Building, he said.
Mahalo
To a very kind employee at the Pearlridge Burger King, where I recently went to eat. I use a cane and have difficulty carrying anything. When my order was ready, the young lady took my tray and said, “I will take it to your table.” When I was through, she was right there and took care of my tray. God bless her. — Thankful Senior
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