REPORT FROM THE CITY– Contractors have finished drilling the final tunnel of the Beachwalk Force Main and are now working in two of the project’s six jacking pits. The 1,250 foot line between the jacking pit at the Ala Wai Recreation Center and the pit fronting 1717 Ala Wai Boulevard is now connected.
This was the most complicated tunnel leg, as the specialized Meyer pipe supplied by USCPS went forty feet deep and under a portion of the canal. The line curved left to miss the underground support structures for the McCully bridge, and then curved back the other direction to line up with the receive g shaft on Ala Wai Boulevard.
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With the final leg complete, contractors tested the entire 5,800 foot line that stretches from Moiliili to Ala Moana Beach Park.
Workers are focusing their work on pits Ala Wai Boulevard fronting 1717 Ala Wai and the one at the Ala Wai Recreation Center. The force main and pressure manhole connections need to be completed prior to the filling in and finishing of the jacking pits, also known as shafts. Once the shafts are completed, contractors will remove the above ground wastewater piping on the mauka side of the Ala Wai Canal, and at the entrance to Ala Moana Beach Park. They will also remove the 5,000 foot long 48-inch canal pipe that was sunk in the canal floor as part of the emergency procedures. The staging area behind Ala Wai and Iolani School will be used to remove and cut up the pipes.
The City Parks Department is assisting in coordinating the remediation process in the impacted park areas. The city estimates the entire project should be done by late summer of 2013. All this work is designed to avoid a repeat of what happened six years ago, when an aging pressurized force main system broke, and the city was forced to pump 48 million gallons of wastewater into the canal, rather than risk it backing up into hotels, businesses and homes in Waikiki.
The ongoing force main project, coupled with the permanent portion of the Beachwalk Wastewater Emergency Bypass line, and the original force main line that was rehabilitated following the 2006 break, provides the city two reliable ways to transport wastewater out of Waikiki. For further information call 808-543-8374 or log onto our website www.beachwalkforcemain.com
We own our condominium on the Ala Wai and have been patiently waiting for the completion of the project which began six years ago. It seems that the end is near with the scheduled summer 2013 completion date. Finally we'll be able to get rid of the huge eyesore . We eagerly await the project's completion.
Kilani Ventura
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