Bay work

Underwater repairs to tsunami damage at Keauhou Small Boat Harbor are nearing completion.

Sea Engineering Inc. and more than a dozen members of the U.S. Army 7th Engineer Dive Detachment, based out of Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, conducting yearly required construction training have been working jointly since Nov. 4 performing various repairs to the harbor’s pier and bulkhead areas.

The scope of work includes, but is not limited to, pouring a 3- to 4-foot concrete jacket around exposed steel pilings on the finger pier, as well as repairing a fist-sized crack on the northern edge of the harbor’s bulkhead, said Finn McCall, a project engineer with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation. The damage was sustained during the March 11, 2011, tsunami, which dislodged sediment and rubble protecting the steel pilings and uplifted part of the bulkhead.

Work is expected to wrap up on Friday, said Ed Underwood, DOBOR director. The harbor has remained open throughout the weeks of construction with just use of the finger pier restricted.

Sea Engineering Inc. was awarded the $438,136 contract on Oct. 10 by DOBOR, Underwood said. He estimated that the state would be able to recoup approximately 75 percent of the project’s cost from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“It’s saving some money and getting the work done quickly,” Underwood said about the Army’s involvement.

The work being completed this month is just part of the tsunami-damage related repairs project, said Underwood, adding that the Army could only assist in November prompting the division to split up the work. The division hopes to get underway in early 2014 the remainder of the project that calls for repaving asphalt areas of the harbor and repairs to a revetment, which protects the harbor’s boat ramp from waves entering the bay.