By Chelsea Jensen
By Chelsea Jensen
Stephens Media
Makalei Fire Station, now well over a decade in the making, is inching ever closer to completion.
The station’s main building, engine bays, emergency generator and nearly 50-foot fire hose and training tower have taken shape, and contractor Maryl KPRS Hawaii Joint Venture is now working on interior areas, said Miro Neskovic, Maryl project manager. Left on the contractor’s to-do list is some painting and flooring, installing kitchen, locker room and bathroom fixtures and paving and landscaping around the facility.
Neskovic estimated Thursday that Maryl construction crews and its subcontractors will be done at the station by the end of April.
Hawaii Fire Department Assistant Chief Glen Honda, the department’s project manager, said the station remains on schedule to open for service in August.
Work at the 2.8-acre site, located on Mamalahoa Highway mauka of the Makalei Estates subdivision, began in summer 2011. Actual building construction began several months later.
The station features three large and well-lit engine bays, a fire hose tower, an emergency power generator, training room, a dormitory, exercise and work rooms, fuel tanks and other amenities, Honda said. The tower has also been outfitted so firefighters and rescue personnel can practice repelling from heights up to 30 feet.
It will be staffed by the West Hawaii Hazardous Materials Team, which was created in 2006 with the intent of ultimately being housed in Kona. The team’s engine, its decontamination trailer and a pumper truck will be stationed at the facility, Honda said.
An ambulance could be added in the future.
Maryl KPRS Hawaii Joint Venture is tasked with constructing the station for under $7 million, which is nearly $3 million less than the department’s July 2010 estimate.
Of that, $4.1 million was provided by federal stimulus funds awarded in October 2009, which had to be used by August. The remainder was funded through a 2008 county bond.
Though Honda said the fire station project remains on schedule, talk of a fire station in the Kalaoa area dates back to at least 1999.
Over the years, the project has hit speed bumps while the county tried unsuccessfully to work out land acquisitions from several private landowners. It wasn’t until July 2009 when a deal was struck, and GKK Makalei LLC deeded the parcel to the county.
Email Chelsea Jensen at cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com.