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Crews to upgrade power equipment in Pearl City area

Work requires power outage, intermittent road closures June 20

From Hawaiian Electric:

Hawaiian Electric Company crews and contractors will be upgrading power distribution equipment in Pacific Palisades on Wednesday, June 20, from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The work requires a power outage that will affect about 2,000 customers from 8:30 a.m. to at least 4:30 p.m.

Crews will replace a riser utility pole that supports the circuit feeding the Palisades neighborhood, as well as five other poles. Five of the six poles date to 1962 when the neighborhood was first developed. Replacing the riser pole requires a crane and both overhead and underground work, including multiple cable splices. A helicopter will also be used for the other five pole replacements.

The equipment upgrades will improve grid resilience and service reliability for the Palisades area.

Letters are being sent to affected customers and updates will be provided during the workday via our social media channels.

There will also be brief intermittent traffic stoppages on upper Waimano Home Road and Komo Mai Drive during the helicopter overflights.

The poles and equipment will be air-lifted from Waimano Home Road near the Pearl City Cultural Center to worksites above the Komo Mai Drive hairpin turn leading to Pacific Palisades and along the gulch behind homes on ?ka‘ika‘i Loop.

Helicopter flights over Waimano Home Road are scheduled from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Flights over the Komo Mai Drive hairpin turn area will take place from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. and also from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.

The crane used to set the riser pole will be parked on ‘Aumakua Street near the intersection with ‘?‘?manu Street, requiring the closure of one lane of traffic in that area.

Upgrades will also be made to utility pole-mounted equipment on ‘?mo‘omo‘o Street, ‘?po‘epo‘e Street and Waimano Home Road. Parking will be restricted in the work areas.

Signs will be placed in the work areas a day in advance to notify residents. Traffic signs, control measures, flagmen, and special-duty police officers will help direct traffic.

To prepare for the extended outage, customers can refer to our Handbook for Emergency preparedness for food safety tips: https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/prepare.

Here are some basic tips for food handling:

Freeze ice packs and large blocks of ice (in rinsed out milk cartons or similar containers) befor the power goes out.

Dry ice can help keep perishable items cold during a power outage, but be sure to read up on how to safely handle dry ice. Remember to remove dry ice from the freezer once the power is restored.

Consider transferring food to a freezer that is still powered (such as a friend or family member’s freezer).