Shifting funding priorities and the harrows of nature have pushed repairs for the Laupahoehoe Boat Ramp and seawall further into the future.
In the fall of 2022, Hawaii County officials said the restoration of the ramp —which was closed in 2009 after years of degradation — was a priority for the county administration. Parks and Recreation Director Maurice Messina said at the time $5 million in capital improvement funding had been lined up to repair and reopen the only boat launch between Hilo and Kawaihae.
That funding is no longer available, Messina said Tuesday.
“What happened was priority was given to the Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant,” Messina said, referring to a multiphase rehabilitation project for the decrepit sewage facility. “What you could say was there was this money that was earmarked for the boat ramp, but when faced with the potential catastrophic failure of the treatment plant, that ended up being the priority.”
Messina added the wastewater plant project is estimated to cost about $100 million or more, which means the Laupahoehoe Boat Ramp restoration is not the only county project to have its funding snatched. But he said Parks and Rec still considers reopening the ramp a priority, and has impressed upon Mayor Mitch Roth the need to fund it.
“As soon as funding is available, we would get into the design work and permitting,” Messina said. “The goal is still to get it reopened as quickly as possible.”
While officially closed, the ramp is still technically usable, although extensive damage caused by the relentless surf has eroded much of the concrete and exposed its rebar, which could damage any boat that tries to launch from there.
Part of the reason the ramp has become so damaged is because of complications related to the seawall that is meant to shield it from the waves.
Bob Duerr, a member of the county’s Game Management Advisory Commission, said the seawall has never been particularly effective at its purpose.
“Laupahoehoe has always been a very difficult place to launch from because of how exposed it is to the the trade winds,” Duerr said, adding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — the sole agency responsible for the seawall’s maintenance — estimates that it only actually functions as a breakwater about 65% of the time.
The Corps of Engineers also planned to repair the seawall independently of the ramp restoration project, and had about $8 million available for such a project last year, Duerr said. But that project has encountered complications of its own that could push its completion out by years or even decades.
“Coral has now entered the picture,” Duerr said, explaining that coral has begun growing on the seawall pilings, which necessitates additional coral mitigation measures for any work on the seawall. “So, it doesn’t look like an $8 million project anymore.”
During an April meeting of the Game Management Advisory Commission, Army Corps project manager Benjamin Reder said that the initial project already was estimated to be running up against its $8 million budget limit when the coral was discovered. Full cost estimates of how much the coral mitigation might require have not been determined, but Reder estimated that it would be somewhere between $8 million and $40 million.
Because the presence of coral changes the nature of the project, it would need “a new start” — another round of studies, requests to local agencies, and appeals to elected officials — which could take three to four years on a “very optimistic” timeline, said Corps operation maintenance program manager Nani Shimabuku during the April meeting.
“I would say it could take another 10 to 15 to 20 years just to have something constructed,” Shimabuku said.
Messina on Tuesday said the county will move ahead with the boat ramp project regardless of the Army Corps’ progress on the seawall, adding that he certainly does not expect the seawall project to be completed first.
But nonetheless, Duerr expressed frustration at the delays facing the project, adding that the county should conduct public outreach among the Hamakua community informing them that the money formerly thought to be available for the ramp is not.
“There is very little understanding of ocean access issues at the county or state levels,” Duerr said. “Boat ramps are our access to the sea. If you looked at them like you would a gymnasium — as this opportunity for recreation, for public health — it wouldn’t be like this.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.