Fix It! Kapālama Hale Parking Has Lots Of Signs But Little Direction
Repaving heavily used parking lots is a logistical challenge, the city says, but scheduled maintenance has been moved up following inquiries by Civil Beat.
Wedged in between a bustling Costco gas station and Kapālama Hale, a city-owned parking lot is heavily used by visitors to the driver’s licensing center and a satellite City Hall.
The lot at 925 Dillingham Ave., entered via Alakawa Street, has 181 stalls with 92 assigned to staff, and the balance for public parking.
By Hawaiʻi standards, the price is pretty reasonable. A $2-per-half-hour rate can be validated down to 75 cents. On the downside, a Tuesday afternoon visit by Civil Beat found wide patches where the surface is crumbling, clusters of large potholes and barely legible directional arrows for traffic flow.
Several submissions to our tip line said the lack of clear traffic arrows results in drivers often trying to leave through the entry gate, and that the overall experience for paying customers is shabby.
Like many parking facilities, this one is run under a concession agreement between the government and a private contractor who manages the day-to-day operations.
Diamond Parking, a Seattle-based company, operates at least a dozen lots around the state and has held the concession for the parking operation at Kapālama Hale since June 2020.
The 50-page legal agreement requires Diamond Parking to prominently display signs showing the parking rates, lot hours and the various legal disclaimers about liability.
And there are signs in abundance. They’re all in English, with some in small font and high off the ground, but certainly compliant with the contract and installed at Diamond Parking’s expense.
But the road markings in the lot are nothing but ghostly outlines – no surprise given the volume of traffic that the lot has seen since Kapālama Hale opened nearly 10 years ago.
And the road surface is the responsibility of the city.
Repaving a busy lot like Kapālama Hale poses a logistical challenge because of the disruption weekday closures cause, Honolulu city spokesman Ian Scheuring said in an email Friday.
Weekends are preferable, but asphalt contractors tend to have less availability, he said.
But after Civil Beat inquired about the condition of the Kapālama lot, Scheuring said the city’s Department of Facility Maintenance team met and moved up scheduled “mill and fill repaving maintenance.”
A crew from the department will be on site this week to inspect and determine a start date for the project, he said.
Scheuring said the Iwilei area of Honolulu is littered with contaminated brownfield sites that can cause additional complications. “Digging up the parking lot for a significant repaving project brings with it the possibility of unearthing hazardous conditions that worsen our problems,” he said.
We’ll keep you updated on the progress.
Who Is Responsible?
Gene Albano, director of Honolulu Department of Facility Maintenance, 808-768-3343.
Residents can submit reports online at honoluluhi.citysourced.com; by email at dfmroads@honolulu.gov; by phone at 808-768-4381; or through the free Honolulu 311 app.
Pothole Fixed In 4 Days, And On The Fourth!
When we started the Fix It! project, the team at the City and County of Honolulu asked us to highlight the existing 311 system — an app and website where Oʻahu residents can report wear and tear on public amenities.
We’ve been happy to do so, but we have also received at least 10 tips where readers said they had reported problems to 311 with little effect.
But this week we heard about a 311 success story and fair is fair. The city crew deserves credit.
Sean Aronson noticed that a “huge” pothole near his house on Pālolo Avenue in Honolulu had actually gotten worse after it was paved over three months ago. On June 30, Aronson reported it to the city’s 311 app as well as to our Fix It! tip line.
We hadn’t written about it yet, but Aronson let us know that The pothole was fixed on the Fourth of July.
Seeking More Tips For Fix It!
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You can send us an email at news@civilbeat.org. Put “Fix It” in the subject line so it doesn’t get lost among the many other news tips we receive.
You can send a letter to the newsroom at P.O. Box 10857, Honolulu, HI 96816.
We won’t use your name without your permission but, if we pursue your fix, we will get back to you with what we find.
