There is an outside possibility that the Koloa bypass road could be open in time for next month’s Koloa Plantation Days celebration. Much depends on the contents of a report being generated by the new general contractor, Okada Trucking Company
There is an outside possibility that the Koloa bypass road could be open in time for next month’s Koloa Plantation Days celebration.
Much depends on the contents of a report being generated by the new general contractor, Okada Trucking Company Ltd., about whether the last mile or so of the road can pass county specifications with just an asphalt overlay, or if that portion of the road will need to be torn out and re-built.
County Engineer Cesar Portugal confirmed that Okada Trucking was hired to finish the road, after original general contractor Doreen L. Sanchez-Rego Contractor Inc. failed to finish the road to contract specifications by a mid-March contract deadline.
Sanchez-Rego declined comment for this story.
It was insurance company Travelers that hired Okada Trucking. Travelers is being acquired by Reliance National Indemnity Company, according to Deputy County Attorney Curtis Shiramizu.
The insurance company posted a surety (performance) bond, or guarantee, for the original contractor. The original contract amount was $4.8 million, of which the original contractor has been paid all but around $200,000, said Portugal.
On Wednesday, representatives from Okada Trucking, the county, and various local subcontractors toured the unfinished portion of the bypass road, and from that examination Okada project manager Gavin Hubbard will generate a report indicating whether the overlay or total reconstruction option will be initiated, Portugal said.
Hubbard could not be reached for comment Friday.
In the meantime, pavers are checking on the availability of materials, and are trying to adjust schedules to make finishing this project a high priority. Other subcontractors are also gearing up to facilitate a quick finish to the project, Portugal added.
Okada Trucking has a long Kaua’i history, and was hired to finish a portion of a county Department of Water pipeline project that Doreen L. Sanchez-Rego, Contractor, Inc. also failed to finish by the county contract’s specified completion date, according to Ed Tschupp, deputy manager of the county Department of Water.
That default happened a few months before the same company failed to complete the Koloa bypass road on schedule and up to specifications, he said.
Most of the pipeline work has since been completed by Okada, which hired former Rego’s Trucking employee Steve Brown, now operating his own company, Brown’s Trucking, to finish the job, Tschupp said.
The work involved a pipeline along Ma’alo Road in Kapaia, and related pipelines stretching to new well sites, said Tschupp.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
