Once again the armchair engineers have come out of woodwork complaining about the Queen Kaahumanu Highway Phase II widening project. Firstly comparing this project to the privately financed Kona Commons shopping complex is a unfair comparison. It is very likely the developers gave incentives to the contractors to finish in a timely manner. The HDOT doesn’t have the luxury of giving similar incentives. If they did the public would be howling that the contractor is getting too much money.
As for how long this project is taking, it is amazing that they’ll finish this widening by December 2008. Especially taking into account the unforeseen DWS/QLT waterline replacement. Under usual circumstances it would take years to get these waterlines replaced. Just imagine if Hawaiian Dredging decided not to replace these waterlines in conjunction with the DWS and QLT. I would bet there would be a firestorm of complaints about a newly paved road getting ripped up once again.
On top of the latter issue another reason for these delays is because this roadway project was the first design/build roadway in the state. In my opinion when you do something for the first time there is bound to be problems. Hence there has been a lot of change orders to accommodate such things as increased traffic projections. Again I believe its more prudent to address these issues all once instead of 5-10 years down the road.
In regards to the issue of ripping up the makai lanes, Hawaiian Dredging will be doing that only between Makala Blvd to Palani Road intersection. The makai lanes grade is much less than the new mauka lanes. So it has to be torn up. As for the Makala Blvd to the harbor, that only needs a final layer of asphalt. The Palani Road to Malulani Gardens segment of this roadway will likely be get resurfaced only.
But the latter is not going to be a huge headache as re-constructing the Palani road/Queen Kaahumanu intersection. I tried to urge Brennon Morioka to have Hawaiian Dredging do this work at night.But that requires a noise abatement permit. He was unsure if Hawaiian Dredging had obtained this permit. So in other words we are in for a rough ride until December.
I’m hoping that Goodfellow Brothers will do a better job on the Queen Kaahumanu Highway Phase II widening project. One good sign, is the fact the GBI appears to be proactive to solicit citizen concerns (hence their website).On top of that they will apparently have a full time public relations person to address concerns from the public.
In regards to the Kona Hospital layoffs I found out why Kona Community Hospital is laying off people and other hospitals are not (even if they are losing more money). These other hospitals have decided to stick their head into the sand and ignore the problem.On the other hand, KCH has decided to address the problem head on.As far as I understand, each hospital is responsible to address their own fiscal shortfalls.
Rep.Josh Green e-mailed me his thoughts on this looming crisis:
“I have asked the Governor for a special session to address the crisis – and fight to make HMSA accountable and to pass tort reform, if it hadn’t been submarined by a few representatives, would have averted this crisis. I will continue this fight on behalf of all of the people who need our community hospitals, all of West Hawaii, from the Senate next year.”
Lastly,I nearly died laughing after seeing this cartoon done by Greg Henkel. It brings a new meaning to a “harmonic tremor.” 
Greg, you really outdid yourself with this cartoon, keep up the good work.
Aaron-
Thanks for checking out the Kona Hospital story. But it still doesn’t make sense that the individual hospitals simply have the option of continuing to run a shortfall with no consequences. I mean, I appreciate that KCH wants to be responsible, but if the State is going to bail out the hospitals that make no cuts, aren’t the employees taking a hit for nothing?
Aaron-No problem. It looks like that the other hospitals are willing to mortgage their future and consequently make this crisis worse instead of addressing it now.At least that’s the responses I’ve
gotten from the people I’ve e-mailed about this.
But unless “making the crisis worse” has individual consequences for the less-responsible hospitals (different from system-wide consequences), what incentive do they have to make the “responsible” choice?
Aaron- Good question, I don’t think there is any incentives in place to do the right thing in this situation. It seems most of the hospitals are content to continue operating like normal. Which isn’t the most fiscally prudent thing to do at this point.
Interestingly, I found this PBN article about these layoffs at KCH.Apparently KCH’s fiscal shortfall is only 3.7 million (it is 7.6 million if you include North Kohala Hospital). Which is a pittance compared to the 27 million dollar shortfall anticipated at Hilo Medical Center