Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
By PETER SUR
Tribune-Herald staff writer
A lack of funding from the state Department of Transportation has put a long-awaited cargo storage facility at the Hilo International Airport on ice.
In November 2009, with much fanfare, state officials held a groundbreaking ceremony on what was then called a Hold Cargo and Light Industrial Building at the airport. The 60,000-square-foot, steel framed cargo building is intended to bring cargo operations closer to the main terminal and consolidate cargo operations under one roof.
Officials originally envisioned a two-phase construction scenario, with both phases to be done by Isemoto Contracting Co. and completed within two years of the groundbreaking.
Instead, contractors are only now finishing the first phase — the construction of a 50,000-square-yard apron and taxiways designed to support wide-body cargo aircraft.
“The facility asphalt ramp paving and concrete hard stand is scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2012,” said DOT spokesman Daniel Meisenzahl in an email. “The cargo building construction is still pending the availability of funding. The ramp and hard stand were 95 percent funded by the Federal Aviation Administration,” at a cost of about $14 million.
But according to Meisenzahl, the FAA will not fund the construction of anything that is revenue-generating — that is, rented out — so the $15.75 million cost of the cargo facility itself falls entirely on the state. Until this building is built, cargo operations will continue at undersized facilities near the old Hilo Airport building.
“Some time after construction started on the ramp and hard stand, it was determined that the airports division did not have the funding. The project is still on the books and is a top priority for Hilo. Unfortunately, it has to compete with the priorities for all of the DOT airports across the state,” Meisenzahl said.
Issues relating to the installation of FAA and National Weather Service weather stations also contributed to a delay. “The coordination with the federal agencies was cumbersome, resulting in a nine-month delay,” Meisenzahl said.
He reiterated that funding for the project is contingent on the availability of funding and the priority list for the DOT Airports Division. “This project will not be covered by the federal government, which makes it harder to fund,” he said. “It is tough to compete with a project when the state portion guarantees 75 percent to 80 percent funding from the federal government.”
It’s also tough to compete when no Big Island lawmaker sits on the House Transportation Committee, and only one serves on its equivalent in the Senate.
State Sen. Gil Kahele, when asked about the status of the cargo facility, contacted an Airports Division administrator to ask what the Abercrombie administration plans to do.
“They don’t have the money yet,” Kahele said. “What they need to do is float bonds.
The cargo facility is part of a multi-year, Hawaii Airports Modernization Program. Kahele was hopeful that funding would come for the building at the same time as funding for a number of other projects that are, in his words, “shovel ready.”
“They want to do it all at one time,” Kahele said. It’s a matter of timing … it might be the latter part of the year.”
Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.