The decrepit state of the Hawai’i Island’s busiest airport is becoming untenable. Not even a month after runways cracking forced the airport to close, Kona Airport had another unscheduled closure as crews worked to, ironically, make proactive repairs to avoid another unexpected closure.
Last month, cracks and pitting appeared in the only runway at the Ellison Onizuka International Airport at Keahole near Kona on the Island of Hawai’i. Worse, the cracks developed in critical areas of the runway, making it infeasible for airport ops to avoid the area. As a result, the Hawai’i Department of Transportation (HIDOT) closed the runway for emergency repairs, stranding thousands of passengers in Hawaii and around North America. Too bad, then, that a proactive project designed to prevent another such emergency triggered another mass disruption.
Kona Airport Had Another Unscheduled Closure
On Tuesday, February 13, 2024, Kona Airport had another unscheduled closure. However, as I mentioned earlier, this closure was the result of work being done to shore-up the facility’s aging runway. Specifically, a contractor is repaving aircraft turnaround areas at either end of the runway. This work is supposed to mitigate potential crack issues in this part of the runway, though I’m not sure why turnaround areas are needed, as there are taxiways at both ends and turnout areas along most of its length.
Anyway, according to Big Island Now, the contractor working on the turnaround areas had an issue with the shuttle buggy they use to transport asphalt from the staging area to the worksite. Contractor Jas W. Glover had to bring in another buggy to resume work – who the hell doesn’t keep a spare around? – and by the time they did, the asphalt they had on-site cooled and became unusable.
As a result, Glover had to produce another batch of asphalt at its facility all the way in Waimea. 45 minutes away. They then trucked the new batch to the airport and resumed work.
State officials are stating that they “… are working with the contractor to have redundancies in place that will avoid delays in reopening the runway daily.” Holy f**k. Are you serious? This wasn’t a consideration from the start? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but still.
At any rate, as that statement suggests, this is a multi-day project. 15 days, to be exact, with the first day of work being 2/13. Further, work is scheduled to take place from 12 am to 6 am over the course of the work period, during which the airport will be closed.
On this particular night, the f**k up meant that Jas W. Glover blew past its work window by a significant amount. At first, state officials said that the airport would open at 9 am. Then it was pushed back to 12 pm, and again to 1 pm. However, the airport didn’t reopen until 1:50 pm.
Unfortunately, that the Kona Airport had another unscheduled closure meant that many travelers got stranded. Again. And like last time, officials referred passengers to their airlines, but since the airlines couldn’t get answers from officials, they couldn’t provide answers to passengers.
The incident triggered 17 cancellations and 50 delays, forcing people to miss work, doctor appointments, funerals, surgeries, and more. The closure even disrupted a blood drive, as critical employees couldn’t be flown in from Oahu.
Final Thoughts
I can’t believe Kona Airport had another unscheduled closure – especially one that couldn’t been prevented with a minimal amount of planning and redundancies. Then again, I really shouldn’t be surprised. The State of Hawaii isn’t exactly great at planning or project management, which makes me nervous about the larger runway rehabilitation project they have planned for August. Details of that $120 million project are to be determined, but you can bet I’ll report on them when they become available.