Honolulu Mayor Defends $1 Billion Ala Wai Canal Flood Plan
The project will be funded by the federal government and the city. The city鈥檚 share would be about $375 million.
Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi stood by the newest Ala Wai Flood Plan on Tuesday, saying the high financial cost shouldn鈥檛 be the sole reason that the project is not pursued.
He made the case in front of about 60 people attending a community meeting in Mission Memorial Auditorium next to Honolulu Hale. He said the financial cost of the project would be dwarfed by the destruction that could happen if a flood occurs without mitigation.
鈥淚n Maui, they knew years ago about the liability,鈥 he said, invoking Maui鈥檚 wildfire that killed at least 100 people and burned much of Lahaina to the ground on Aug. 8.
鈥淢y attitude on this: despite the fact that now we鈥檝e got a price tag of over a billion dollars, we have to get this done 鈥 we鈥檙e going to go back to the federal government,鈥 Blangiardi said at the beginning of the meeting.
The meeting was held to gain input from residents on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers鈥 new $1 billion flood control plan.
To protect against heavy rains that could flood the Ala Wai canal, Manoa Stream and Palolo Stream, the Corps developed a plan consisting of flood walls and detention basins to hold and channel excess water away from human development.
An initial estimate in late 2017 showed the cost would be $345 million. That went up to $651 million in 2020, causing the plan to be scrapped in early 2021 due to the high cost.
Pumps intended to move floodwater out faster were removed from the plan. Detention basins were expanded to hold more of that floodwater, said Eric Merriman, the project lead for the Army Corps of Engineers.
The newest plan was published in late November with an estimated cost of $1.075 billion, to be paid for with both federal and city funds. The city鈥檚 share would be about $375 million 鈥 higher than the initial cost estimate in total.
鈥淭here are a few differences between this study and the last study,鈥 Merriman said. 鈥淥ne is timing, right? And so, with Covid and the cost of materials going up, there have been just increases in the cost of construction and doing business that way,鈥 he said.
This was unexpected, said the mayor. But he framed the cost as a challenge to be overcome rather than as a reason to scrap the plan.
鈥淲e just can鈥檛 go, 鈥榠t costs too much, we can鈥檛 do it,鈥欌 Blangiardi said earlier in an interview.
Blangiardi said he is in communication with Hawaii鈥檚 congressional delegation to find ways to lower the cost. But he also said many Army Corps projects around the country are around the billion-dollar mark.
鈥淚 would not want to be in the destruction phase of this, and say, 鈥榃e should have done something, but there were too many people with too many different opinions, and nobody really knew what to do, or they couldn鈥檛 come to an agreement, or maybe it just cost too much.鈥 There鈥檚 no such thing as 鈥榗ost too much,鈥欌 said Blangiardi.
The Army Corps of Engineers published — which runs over 3,700 pages — on a proposed Ala Wai Canal Flood Plan in late November.
The report, entitled the Ala Wai Flood Risk Management Draft General Re-evaluation Report and Integrated Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, is slightly different compared to the previous iteration.
One major opposition was that walls 6 feet tall would block views of the Ala Wai canal.
To mitigate this effect, the new plan has an elevated walkway and the wall is designed with a lava rock aesthetic rather than slick gray.
Some residents testified that they believed much could be accomplished just by clearing streams, like what the city did in preparation for heavy rains in late November. But the community meeting was planned as a listening session, so engineers involved with the project did not respond in the moment.
A second, virtual community meeting covering the same material is scheduled on WebEx .
Next, engineers present at the meetings will incorporate the comments into their plans over the course of about six to eight months, explained city spokesperson Ian Scheuring. The head of the Army Corps of Engineers then has to approve it before it goes to Congress.
Read the draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement here:
