Hawaii’s commercial harbor system operates as a hub-and-spoke system with Honolulu Harbor as the hub and primary entry point for freight. Congestion and sea level rise could put Hawaii’s hub-and-spoke system at risk. if not addressed.
The Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) dedicated the Kapalama Container Terminal (KCT) Phase 1 and broke ground on Phase 2 of the project designed to improve cargo handling capabilities at the hub of Hawaii’s commercial harbor system in 2021.
Two U.S. flag carriers, Matson and Pasha are the main ocean carrier service providers to Hawaii and run the principal containership operations.
The Phase 1 improvements dedicated a 65.9-acre container yard, support buildings, entry and exit gates, security fencing, parking, gantry cranes and container handling equipment, on-site utilities, outdoor energy-efficient lighting, a truck weigh station, and other ancillary features. Phase 1 also reconstructed pavement leading to the existing inter-island cargo facility.
Phase 2 was awarded in late 2020 for $352.5 million and will feature an 18.5-acre container yard, 1,863 linear feet of additional berthing capacity, dredging of the waterfront and harbor channel, widening of Piers 40 and 41 for wider inter-island vessels, reconstruction of Pier 41, and structural improvements to Pier 40 to support roll-on/roll-off cargo operations.
Hub and Spoke
In an exclusive interview with AJOT, Dreana Kalili, deputy director for Harbors at the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) explained that Hawaii’s commercial harbor system operates as a hub-and-spoke system with Honolulu Harbor on the island of Oahu (where 68% of Hawaii’s 1.4 million residents live) as the hub and primary entry point for incoming cargo. from the continental US and foreign countries.
From Honolulu, cargo is distributed to five other islands served by seven commercial harbor facilities on those islands. The two harbors located on Oahu generate 81% of the operating revenue.
In Fiscal Year 2021, 1.5 million TEUs of containerized cargo, 169,000 automobiles, 3.4 million tons of bulk cargo, and 22.52 million barrels of liquid cargo (through pipelines), moved through Port Hawaii.
Kalili explained the port operation: “The center of Honolulu Harbor is Sand Island, which is where most of the cargo comes into. That is about 112 acres that's split between Matson and Pasha. Matson operates on about 80-81 acres. Pasha currently operates on about 31-32 acres. The addition of the 80 acres at Kapalama Container Terminal (KCT) amounts to an 80% increase of cargo yard operations. So, we can one, accommodate more cargo, but more importantly we can work off of a wheeled operation rather than a stacked operation. This way cargo containers can be touched once rather than a number of times. So that's really the big benefit by completing KCT.”
Sea Level Rise
To defend against sea level rise, KCT was raised 3 feet above other piers.
Following the completion of KCT, the State will begin upgrading the Young Brothers Terminal (YBT) which provides tug/barge service to Hawaii’s neighboring islands. There, the piers will also be elevated by 3 feet. There, major upgrades are necessary: “our district operation guys, and our engineers like to remind me that the piers that we operate on now are like 120 years old. A lot of the substructure work has been on a maintenance basis … so we will be driving sheet piles to support the piers rather than just the posts that we have.”
Kalili noted that the YBT “operates with all top picks and forklifts and there certainly is a lot of federal money and now's the right time to look at maybe electrifying some of the operation. So that's a very high-level discussion that I'm having with all the Harbor users. I think a lot of diesel vehicles can be transitioned to and electrified…we are responsible for a lot of the power infrastructure at their operating areas.”
The Other Islands
Meanwhile on the neighbor islands, improvements need to be made to accommodate more growth. Kalili said that for example, on the island of Maui, this involves moving a cement yard to improve container flows. At Hilo on Hawaii, a pier upgrade has been completed.
On the island of Hawaii, Kalili said: “We have two ports on Hawaii, one at Kwaihae Harbor on the west side and Hilo Harbor on the east side … We do need to look at port expansion. The good thing about Kwaihae is we've got plenty of property. It's just that property needs to be improved to support our operations. We've got to pave it; we've got to strengthen some areas. But we already own the property.
In Hilo, we're working on a land acquisition. We are nearing the end of the due diligence phase, and we're about to get ready for purchase negotiations with the landowners and then doing the environmental assessment and all the other planning work.”
Port Congestion
Kalili said a problem at both Hawaii island ports is congestion: “Cargo doesn't move very smoothly in our cargo yards, which means a lot of trucks back up on the highways. And that backup causes a lot of impact to the neighboring communities. And they're all residential communities. So, in both places there's an industrial area where our port is right up against residences. And so, we've got to minimize our impact to those communities. And so, we're working with my counterparts at (the State) Highways to look at either doing a roadway expansion or adding a center turn lane.”
In the meantime, the State is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deepen the ship channel draft in Honolulu but also to look at sea level rise threats: “We are currently working with the Army Corps on a feasibility study for modifications to the federal waterway in our harbor that ensures we can accommodate larger vessels. Ships are just going to keep growing and growing as our requirements and demand for cargo grow. And I think we might reach a point where vessels may be too large. This means at our existing facilities there are dredging needs.”
She added that the feasibility study with the Army Corps was “probably a spinoff” of the lock and dam idea to look at a lock and dam system for protecting Honolulu Harbor. It is not currently under consideration but raising the piers at KCT and Young Brothers by three feet means that lower lying areas will be impacted: “We would just create flooding areas in parts of Honolulu, which we don't want to do. And so, I've had some conversations with the City and County of Honolulu departments that manage storm water, and they're very early conversations, but we're trying to acknowledge how our systems interconnect. … And so, I know the Army Corps has some maps showing … flood impacts (and) sea level rise. And so, we're looking into it. We're in early phases of the conversation.”
What’s the Alternative?
Kalili noted that in the event of a hurricane or other natural disaster incapacitating Honolulu Harbor, the island of Oahu and its neighboring islands have no strong alternative port to unload containers because there are no container cranes at other Hawaii port locations. The situation takes on an added concern because of growing tensions between the US and China over Taiwan that could involve the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor and therefore Hawaii.
Kalili says Hawaii may need more help to further invest in its infrastructure and connecting “with our congressional delegation about getting resources for port infrastructure. That's definitely an important addition to those conversations. Should there be this conflict? What do we do? What do we need? And how do we get that?”
