The Hawaii Department of Water Supply replied to my e-mail expressing concern about the abandoned equipment surrounding the new Palani Road water tank.
“Aloha and thank you for your interest in this important water supply project that will be of great benefit to portions of North Kona. The contractor’s project completion date for the reservoirs and transmission line is August 21, 2011, so we have moved past the halfway point.
The new reservoirs are actually an integral part of the transmission waterline system and they will need to be on-line and operational prior to DWS utilizing the transmission waterline. However, a section of the upper portion of the new pipeline also feeds into an existing reservoir along Palani Road. Therefore, DWS should be able to make use of the uppermost section of the waterline, in combination with the existing reservoir, prior to completion of the new reservoirs and remaining sections of the waterline. This will allow additional service to the DHHL Laiٴopua Villages area sooner than the project’s final completion date.
With the new reservoirs, much like with the construction of a new house, once the structures go up, there still remains significant detail work to be done in order to finish the project. The reservoirs still require inlet valve controls, electric power, supervisory control systems and monitoring systems, as well as paving and security fencing.
At this time, the project looks to be on schedule for the completion date.
We appreciate your comments and support.”
It may take a little bit longer before HDCC submits a Kealakehe Parkway base yard vacating schedule . The HDOT has to finalize the documentation for Queen Kaahumanu Highway Phase I widening and another project before HDCC will submit a schedule. However, the HDOT is working with HDCC to mitigate the impacts from this base yard.
The design of last Hilo Saddle Road phase and the Kona side phase is nearly 100% and 95% complete. However, there is still a lot of work remaining before either segment can be put out to bid.
The MOU between Palamanui and the University of Hawaii may be finalized sometime this week. They are awaiting final approval (with signatures) before this document can be executed. In addition, the University of Hawaii is slated to officially award Keauhou Kona Construction Corporation the contract to build the initial campus roadway infrastructure.
Pehea’oe posted new photos of the incomplete HOVE well facility.
Sandwich Isles Communications filed a petition urging the FCC to reconsider their September 29, 2010 decision. AT&T also filed an application urging the FCC to withdraw the latter ruling. It should be very interesting to see how this plays out. Will Sandwich Isles succeed getting 15 million dollars in subsidies instead of 7.5 million dollars or will they only get 1.9 million? Stay tuned.
Sandwich Isles Communications has changed their main service description on their website. It stated this previously:
“An all-underground fiber optic cable network delivers SIC’s state-of-the-art services throughout Hawaii, and since 2007, all new services have been delivered by fiber right to the home or office [FTTP].“
Their current website omits this information. I wonder if my inquiry had anything to do with this change?
Lastly, True North Asia, one of investment firms behind The Villages at Aina Le’a project, has posted more spin about this development (here, and here).
I can’t fathom why any real estate agents would be interested in selling town homes in this development. The State LUC may revert the project’s land use classification back to agriculture on November 17th, 2010. In addition, the director of the state Office of Planning is not in favor of this project.
November 3rd, 2010 at 9:59 AM
SIC may have removed that blurb because a DHHL representative inquired about it in our neighborhood’s behalf. It seems SIC claims no fiber was laid underground here but a friend of ours claims otherwise. Do you know?