By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Work continues for H-3, next to the Kaamilo overpass.
OK, H-3's done. Actually, done enough so that you can drive on it. But that doesn't mean the job is finished. Little follow-up projects are underway. Here's the hole story about H-3 merge
Take this big hole in the mauka embankment of H-1 near Pearlridge, next to the Kaamilo overpass. It's big, real big. Big enough for a marching band competition. Even though it was chopped right into the rock of the hillside, it's temporary.
Somewhere down the line, H-1 in this area will be expanded so the merging lanes from H-3 will merge oh-so-more smoothly. In the meantime, it's not a matter of just squirting out more asphalt and rolling it flat. The "infrastructure" will be "impacted," which means that whatever's under the freeway has to be fiddled with before the extra lane can be added.
That includes water mains. There are a couple running under the freeway right at this spot, and since the state transportation department is monkeying with the city's water supply system, the city is requiring the state to replace the mains.
The trick is digging new tunnels across a busy freeway. Imagine digging a trench across H-1. Yikes! All those citizens happily barrelling across H-3 would hit a dead stop on H-1. The answer is to dig UNDER the freeway.
This requires "microtunnelling," using laser-alignment tools and bores, just like the Wastewater Department is currently using on the Kapiolani Park end of Waikiki.
But this equipment requires a lot of maneuvering room, to angle the bore just right, and to slip the pipes in place. Staging areas need to be constructed so the big bores can be put down.
So that's all this big hole is next to the freeway; elbow room.
By Burl Burlingame, Star-Bulletin
