City awards contracts for Kaneohe-Kailua gravity sewer tunnel

News Release from City and County of Honolulu November 5, 2013

The City and County of Honolulu has awarded a little more than $175 million in contracts for the Kaneohe-Kailua gravity sewer tunnel project to the joint venture group of Southland Contracting, Inc. and Mole Construction, Inc. (Southland Mole JV) and local construction management firm Bowers + Kubota.

The sewer tunnel will fulfill a portion of the First Amended Consent Decree mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Hawaii Department of Health (DOH) to implement remediation projects on Oahu over the next 25-28 years, focusing on the wastewater collection system and wastewater treatment plants (WWTP).

Over the last two years, the city hosted community meetings to inform residents about the project and record community concerns. Based on that feedback, the middle portion of the alignment was moved further from residences. The tunnel now runs behind the Board of Water Supply (BWS) Reservoir near Mokapu Saddle Road.

Construction of the project will provide jobs for local labor; contractors are required by Act 68 to use Hawaii residents for 80 percent of its monthly workforce.

About Southland Mole JV

Southland Contracting, Inc. and Mole Constructors, Inc. are a joint venture (Southland Mole JV). Southland Contracting Inc. is a tunnel excavation and wet utility installation company. Mole Constructors, Inc., founded in 1974, is a leader in the underground civil construction industry. For more information, visit: http://www.scitunneling.com/ and http://www.molecon.com/.

The Kaneohe-Kailua Gravity Sewer Tunnel Project is an approximate 3-mile tunnel from Kaneohe Wastewater Pre-Treatment Facility (WWPTF) to Kailua Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) that will be constructed by a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM). The TBM will drill a tunnel up to 15 feet in diameter. A 10-foot interior diameter pipe will be installed into the bored tunnel. Since the tunnel will convey wastewater by gravity flow, it slopes down toward the Kailua Regional WWTP, starting at a depth of approximately 35 feet below ground level at the Kaneohe WWPTF, and ending approximately 62 feet below ground level at the Kailua Regional WWTP. For more information, visit: http://kkgravitytunnel.org/ .

-END-