When Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi joined other stakeholders at the groundbreaking for the City’s new Honouliuli Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) project in March, he got straight to the point.
“This project is a testament to the city’s dedication to improving infrastructure, embracing sustainability and ensuring a cleaner, healthier future for Honolulu,” he said in a statement released that day.
Leading the $517 million project — officially known as Honouliuli WWTP Phase 1C – Headworks, High-Rate Biological Contractor (HRBC), Solids Process and Miscellaneous Improvements — is Hensel Phelps. Project manager Naomi M. Mercuris says that as of March 1, the company expects “about 70 to 80 workers onsite on average through December 2024.”
The Honouliuli site is the fifth wastewater treatment plant project for Hensel Phelps this year, including two others on Sand Island. Phase 1 of a $417 million secondary treatment project at the Sand Island WWTP received its notice to proceed in December 2021, while a $153 million Sand Island WWTP In-Vessel Bioconversion Facility Digestion Capacity Upgrades contract for the City & County of Honolulu and Synagro was awarded in June.
The first phase of the Sand Island secondary treatment project is part of the city’s efforts to meet a federal mandate to complete secondary treatment and other upgrades at the plant by 2035. Phase 1 is scheduled for completion in December 2026 and reached its halfway point on June 12.
Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company Inc. works on a maintenance building at Sand Island.PHOTO COURTESY HAWAIIAN DREDGING CONSTRUCTION COMPANY INC.
Work is underway by Paradigm Construction on Kalaeloa Barbers Point Harbor Access Road, which will link the Kalaeloa Barbers Point Harbor with the H-1 Freeway when completed.PHOTO COURTESY HONOLULU BUILDERS
Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony for the city’s new Honouliuli Wastewater Treatment Plant in March. PHOTO COURTESY CITY & COUNTY OF HONOLULU/MARKUS OWENS
To meet treatment benchmarks, Hensel Phelps is installing two 96-inch primary effluent lines as well as building an intermediate pump station, a fine screen facility, three process reactors, an effluent tunnel, a utility tunnel and a thickener building. The company is also installing membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology; new MBR channels and an MBR service building are part of the project.
“The advantages of MBR systems over conventional biological systems include better effluent quality, smaller space requirements and ease of automation,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The MBR technology used at Sand Island will treat 20 million gallons per day of the plant’s total capacity of 90 million gallons per day. In addition, effluent is treated with UV radiation.
HAWAIIAN DREDGING CONSTRUCTION COMPANY INC.
Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company Inc. is also busy nearby with work on a maintenance building along with septage and other site improvements at the Sand Island WWTP, set to wrap in 2025.
“[This project] has six major buildings which are in various stages of construction,” says Joel Vallesteros, Hawaiian Dredging project manager. “The maintenance building structural shell will be completed in August, the septage station is ready for finishes and equipment, vehicle shelters are ready for structural steel, the dewatering building vertical concrete work is ongoing and PV parking concrete and structural steel is ongoing.”
Tim Oshima
NAN INC.
At the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, Nan Inc. is the general contractor for the second phase of a ticket lobby renovation and baggage handling systems improvement project worth $149 million for the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT).
“Nan Inc. has completed and turned over the new baggage handling system in Terminal 1, which is the Interisland Terminal, and the new Mauka Concourse, to the HDOT Airports Division,” says Tim Oshima, Nan Inc. project manager. “We’ve also replaced and installed new baggage make-up units … which are the carousels that the baggage sorts through, for the majority of Hawaiian Airlines’ outgoing flights.
“In Terminal 2, the overseas terminal, Nan Inc. has completed and turned over the new baggage handling system in Lobby 8 to DOTA. We are currently modifying and upgrading the baggage handling system in Lobby 7 and will soon be moving on to Lobby 6.
“In Lobby 4 we are about 95 percent complete with the ticket lobby renovations where many of the international airlines operate, along with Hawaiian Airlines’ Japan flights. We have also started ticket lobby renovations in Lobby 6,” Oshima says.
The project’s scheduled completion date is Dec. 31, 2025.
MATSON NAVIGATION COMPANY INC.
At Honolulu Harbor’s Sand Island Terminal, HDOT recently received a $5.25 million award from the U.S. Department of Transportation to install new gating technology.
“Working in partnership with Matson Navigation Company, this project will replace [existing] gating technology and create a separate queueing area for truck exceptions that currently congest the flow of trucks on Sand Island Parkway,” HDOT Director Ed Sniffen said in a statement.
The total cost for the Sand Island Terminal Gating Project is $10.5 million, with Matson funding the remaining cost of the project.
“Matson Terminals Inc. has agreed to provide a non-federal match of 50 percent, or $5.25 million, for the Sand Island Terminal Gating Project,” says Len Isotoff, senior vice president, Hawai‘i. “We are grateful for the partnership with the Hawaii Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highways Administration to improve our terminal’s operational efficiency, protect our environment and support Hawai‘i’s critical shipping infrastructure.”
HDOT says new gating technology will reduce delays by 24 minutes per truck, resulting in an annual reduction of 142 metric tons of CO2 emissions during the first 10 years of operation.
“The improvements … will also mean faster and more predictable service levels for retail customers,” Isotoff notes. “Matson is actively exploring opportunities for additional harbor projects in Hawai‘i that positively impact the environment and our communities.”
Alex Kwon
Colin Ching
2024 ROADWAY UPDATES
The James Campbell Co. and other stakeholders broke ground in April on the latest phase of the Kalaeloa Barbers Point Harbor Access Road, a new link between the harbor and H-1 Freeway.
“We are in the midst of a $36 million phase of infrastructure to complete Phase 1 [of Kapolei Harborside development],” says Steve Kelly, president of James Campbell Company’s Kapolei Properties Division. “Our current phase, which includes the new Harbor Access Road state highway, is being constructed by Paradigm Construction.”
“We will [soon] be done with utility infrastructure — sewer, drain, water systems — at the Harborside Phase 1B project,” reports Paradigm Construction President Alex Kwon. “And we will begin to construct roadways.”
Not far away, similar efforts are underway at Kalaeloa Town, approximately 540 acres in Kalaeloa under development by Hunt Companies.
“Hunt Companies Hawai‘i remains focused on the first upgrade of Kalaeloa Town’s roadways — an investment of some $40 million,” says Tony Gaston, the company’s senior vice president.
Goodfellow Bros. is general contractor for the multi-year project, which includes work on Kamokila Boulevard, Boxer Road, Copahee Avenue and Franklin D. Roosevelt Avenue. The scope of work includes extending Kamokila, expanding FDR, relocating Boxer and improving Copahee.
Gaston says a portion of FDR Avenue bordering the area’s new VA clinic and new Ka‘ulu by Gentry residential community is being expanded from two lanes to four in order to provide greater regional traffic flow.
The project is also bringing Copahee Avenue up to City & County of Honolulu standards and “will be completed in the near future,” he says.
In Kaka‘ako, Hawaiian Dredging is in the final stages of the 2024 Auahi Promenade & Ulana Offsite Sewer and Electrical projects.
“The Auahi Street Promenade Phase 1 project is complete, with the final section of paving and striping [wrapping up] on Auahi Street alongside Victoria Place,” confirms Colin Ching, Hawaiian Dredging project manager.
Work on Auahi includes underground utilities and intersections, as well as sidewalk and landscaping improvements, says Ching.
Work at Ulana is also “nearly complete,” he adds.
“The Ulana offsite electrical project … will provide permanent power to Ulana and other future buildings in Kaka‘ako. [That] project is scheduled to be completed in mid-November.
“Associated with these two projects is the Auahi Street Promenade Phase 2 project that will begin later this summer and is scheduled to be completed in late 2025. This project will align Auahi Street with Pohukaina Street and create a new intersection at Ward Avenue,” Ching continues.
And more roads always mean more infrastructure projects, says Kelly.
“We are currently designing Phases 2 and 3 of [Kapolei Harborside] infrastructure with the intention to begin construction later this year or early next year,” he says.
