Posts Tagged ‘Road Repairs’

“A water main break on Date Street between Lukepane and Ekela avenues shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday has closed the Mo’ili’ili area roadway, police said, “We have our troubleshooter there now, and he’s trying to shut off the water,” said Su Shin, spokeswoman for the Board of Water Supply. “And after that our crews will get there, and they’ll begin work on the main repair.”

In the meantime, police say traffic is being rerouted to Olokele Avenue, onto Winam Avenue and back to Makaleka Avenue, and vice versa. It was not immediately clear when Date might be reopened to traffic.

What is shocking about this January 7 Honolulu-Advertiser story is that it has been repeated ad-nauseum for more than two decades and NO ONE seems to care. Absolutely everyone in a position of Authority (Mayor Hanneman, the Honolulu City Council, Members of the Board of Water Supply) simply yawn, fret a bit about traffic woes, and then go on as if it were normal for underground pipes to break making it mandatory for bull-dozers & back-hoes to hack up roadways, back up traffic and generally further a mess. Completely ignored are the homeowners & businesses frequently flooded by the more severe water main breaks.

Guess what happens when someone suggests the only logical game plan? Guess what happens when someone, such as myself, suggests that ALL water mains and piping ought to be housed in maintenance tunnels? Imagine a quote along these lines, “Eh, too expensive, cost too much money, cannot be done.”

Is it inexpensive to repair ruptured water mains on a near daily basis by digging up roadways, rerouting traffic?  Is there no cost associated with flooded homes & businesses? Rude, perhaps, but I never accept the verdict that nothing can be done. A multi-billion dollar space station is being constructed in the vacuum of space orbiting above Earth. Certainly water mains and essential pipes & wiring can be buried beneath the Earth.

In fact, (here is a wild thought) why don’t we start with the next water main break, instead of just tossing the pipes on unstable sandy soil, burying all beneath a mix of shifting soil & gravel, covering all with a thin membrane of asphalt ,and praying that it lasts a while til the next break? Let’s take the opportunity to place pipes inside a vaulted corridor designed to eventually connect with more vaulted corridors. And while going about the task of properly housing water mains, let’s seize the opportunity to place power transmission lines below ground.

It can and should be done.  Please, I implore my fellow citizens: don’t just sit in traffic wasting gas and worrying about adding another nasty gash to the side of your vehicle when you swerve into an emergency lane twisting around yet another City & County crew hacking up a perfectly okay roadway! Placing water mains & transmission lines in properly constructed maintenance tunnels saves money in so many ways. This is one is a basic principle apparently over the heads of public officials. Water mains in protective tunnels are less prone to break than water mains when simply laid on a unstable mix of gravel & dirt.  If those mains do break, it is a lot easier crawling down a ladder into a tunnel than it is to tear up the roadway. The engineering specifics are beyond the scope of what is clearly solely the opinion of this writer, but please, O’ahu, think about it.

Mahalo.

A  crack in the road shut down Date Street near Ekela Avenue. Traffic is being rerouted through Winam Avenue.

ANDREW SHIMABUKU | The Honolulu Advertiser