KEKAHA — Haku Aletha Kaohi of the West Kaua‘i Technology and Visitor Center said the blessing, Wednesday, marked the close of Phase I “with Thanksgiving,” and the start of Phase II at the Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor.
“This ceremony, symbolized by the untying of the maile lei, marks the completion of an important improvement project that has been much anticipated by Kaua‘i’s commercial and recreational fishing community,” said Mike Faye of the West Kaua‘i Business and Professional Association.
On Sept. 6, 2007, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a construction contract for $18.77 million to Kiewit Pacific Co. for the Kikiaola project, states a release from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The project was cost shared between the Corps and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. With the completion of Phase I, the project has successfully eliminated breaking waves and made the harbor safer for boaters.
“We now have a safe entrance,” Kaohi said during her blessing ceremony, offering thanks for that aspect of the harbor.
The completed phase consisted of dredging a 725-foot long entrance channel varying in width from 105 to 205 feet to a depth of 11 feet, dredging a 320-foot long access channel varying in width from 70 to 105 feet to a depth of seven feet, removing 150 feet of the existing outer east stub breakwater, raising the crest elevation and flattening the seaward slope of approximately 764 feet of the existing east breakwater, removing and reconstructing the 71-foot long inner east breakwater and modifying 245 feet of the existing west breakwater.
Jennifer Sabas of U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye’s Honolulu office said the senator regretted not being able to be present in person, but the death of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy necessitated him having to remain at his Honolulu office.
However, Sabas said Inouye relayed that he became involved after a community resident brought the matter to his attention.
“The senator said he wanted to be a good listener, and at the end of the day, a good deliveryman,” Sabas said.
Roland Sagum, the Westside representative to the state Legislature, said the biggest lesson learned in this project was to be patient, and to be able to work with each other.
“It took a local boy, Sen. Inouye, to pull everything together for us,” Sagum said.
Brigadier General Mark Yenter, the commanding general for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pacific Ocean Division, said what Inouye has done for the people of Hawai‘i and Alaska takes a true leader.
Yenter, who was thrilled with the prospect of possibly meeting the senator in person, said Inouye has had to make things work against a lot of bigger harbors across the nation.
He said when the Corps became involved with the project, they would have preferred to shut down the harbor, but the local community and the state wanted it to remain open.
The Corps safely and efficiently constructed the project with minimal disruption to harbor users, the release states.
“This was not the easiest thing for the Corps to do,” Yenter said, praising Project Manager Sharon Ishikawa for her work at the project. “But it was the right thing.”
DLNR awarded a state-funded inner harbor dredging project to American Marine in June 2009 and plans to finish non-federal dredging inside the harbor in early 2010.
Kikiaola Harbor is located on the southwest coast, between the towns of Kekaha and Waimea.
•Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
