1 day Ago By Leo Azambuja
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provided an update on debris removal, which also included 141 boats.
More than 350 burned vehicles are still spread throughout Lahaina more than a year after the Aug. 8, 2023 fire, but that’s a small fraction of the vehicles that were destroyed. So far, 3,152 vehicles have been removed from the burn zone, according to Lt.
Col. Collin Jones of the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps will collect the remaining cars over the next several months, Jones said at a recent community meeting. No other government agency is involved in the task, but insurance companies and private individuals have removed some vehicles.
“I would say that overall, we are on or ahead of schedule. We’ve been making good progress,” Corps debris mission manager Zack Moore said. The Corps is working with private contractors, many specializing in disaster and debris recovery, to remove vehicles.
It’s taken more than 6,000 hours to remove the vehicles so far; each one takes about two hours. The vehicles are taken from roads and private properties to a temporary staging site at Pioneer Mill in Lahaina. Twice a week, Maui County employees or contractors notify owners and their insurance companies that the vehicles were accounted for and collected as waste.
Once adjudicated, the vehicles are recycled as scrap metal, Moore said. The processing of the vehicles includes removing all hazards and fluids at the pickup location, Moore said. Then they are transported to the staging site to be baled and taken to recycling.
Taking away the vehicles is part of the Corps’ debris removal contract. It also removed and disposed of 141 boats in the burn zone. The Corps estimates the total cost of removing all vehicles at $15 million to $20 million.
This would mean each vehicle cost from $4,300 to $5,700. Removal of all types of debris from roads and other rights of way is 25% complete, the Corps said. “We estimate that all the debris cleanup should be done by February 2025,” Moore said.
The Corps said it has cleared 100% of debris from 1,390 residential lots, with 48 lots still awaiting soil testing to get a final notice of completion. The job was finished several months ahead of the January 2025 estimate, the Corps said. For commercial and public properties, the Corps said it has cleared 94 of 159 lots, with 23 lots waiting for soil testing to get a final notice of completion.
The anticipated date of completion for all commercial and public lots is February 2025. The 36-acre Kilohana temporary housing site, another Corps project, is 85% complete, with 97% of utilities finished. Total completion is expected by Oct.
28. It will include 169 modular units. Construction of the Kealamoka Fleming Road sewer line, serving Kilohana housing, Fleming Road and Malo Street, started July 10 and is expected to be finished by March 15.
The King Kamehameha III temporary school, a project that began in November, was completed in February. The school opened April 1 to serve about 600 students. Civil Beat’s coverage of environmental issues on Maui is supported by grants from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy and the Hawaii Wildfires Recovery Fund, the Knight Foundation and the Doris Duke Foundation.
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