The first sneaker didn’t squeak across the floor of a new gymnasium in Pahala before it was ripped out to start over.
A sign near the massive new green-roofed Ka’u gym and shelter looming over the public school campus in Pahala bears an optimistic completion date of Nov. 15, 2014. But chances are, the $17.3 million project won’t be ready a year from then.
Contractors have been busy ripping up the floor in the 21,069-square-foot gym portion of the 43,300-square-foot building and are scheduled to pour a new floor early next month.
Pahala residents who have seen stacks of the old floor that was sectioned off and piled in a nearby lot said there was no evidence of rebar, the reinforcing steel added to concrete to strengthen it. The stacks of old concrete weren’t visible Friday.
But Department of Public Works Director Warren Lee said earlier this week that a lack of rebar wasn’t the problem with the newly poured floor. Instead, he said, the floor was of uneven thicknesses and didn’t pass county inspection.
“The floor was a reinforced concrete floor,” Lee said Tuesday. “The floor didn’t meet the specifications.”
Lee said the general contractor, Summit Construction Inc., weighed several options and ended up tearing it out to replace it. Company representatives did not return telephone messages this week.
The contractor is paying for the new floor, he said.
“The county does not pay for this. We already paid for it once,” Lee said.
Summit Construction has, however, been paid an extra $166,069 in a change order that was added to the original $17.1 million contract in June. The change order was for “unanticipated changes not included in original design,” according to a July communication to the County Council.
Details of the change order include overhead costs associated with additional time to get State Historic Preservation burial treatment permits, drainage, grading, sidewalk and driveway relocation work, rerouting of telephone lines and other details not specified in the original contract. An earlier change order added $6,937 for the burial treatment plan and locker room material upgrade.
A third change order added 110 contract days to the project, without increasing the cost.
Once complete, the building will be managed by the county Parks and Recreation Department and it will be used jointly by the school and community. Ka‘u High and Pahala Elementary School will use it for physical education classes, school functions, assemblies and athletic team practices and games. It will also be available for youth sport use as well as community functions.
The facility is hardened for use as a shelter during hurricanes and will also contain a filtered vog safe room for residents to escape hazardous volcanic fog. The shelter is being constructed to withstand a 500-year hurricane, a high Category 3.
The facility sits on 5 acres of state property makai of the existing school gymnasium. Funding for the project was first approved by the Legislature in 2009 but was then held back by former Gov. Linda Lingle. The money was later re-appropriated and released by Gov. Neil Abercrombie in fall 2011.
The structure includes an auxiliary building, as well as athletic courts, recreation and multipurpose rooms, restrooms, lobby, concession area, storage rooms, a locker and shower room and an athletic training room. It will feature three NCAA regulation size courts. Approximately 29,000 square feet of the building will also serve as an emergency shelter, serving up to 1,928 people.
The project was plagued with problems almost from the start. A lava tube and burial site caused delays in grading the site and the most recent problems with the flooring have just added to the delay.
The shelter was the brainchild of the late Ka’u Democratic state Rep. Bob Herkes. After five years of unsuccessful appeals for $10.9 million from the state Department of Education for a gym for Ka‘u High School and Pahala Elementary School, Herkes renamed it a civil defense shelter, asked for $18.1 million and got the money transferred to the county in hopes of getting it built more quickly.
The project should be complete sometime next year.
