Reliable electricity is critical to daily life and operations in Kalaupapa on Molokaʻi and the current electrical system is aged and failing. It was first installed in 1969.
Kalaupapa is home to fewer than 100 residents, which includes employees of the state Department of Health, National Park Service and former Hansen's disease patients who choose to continue living there. They experience regular electrical outages.
“The Kalaupapa community is a pretty isolated community," said Nancy Holman, the superintendent of Kalaupapa National Historical Park.
"If you can imagine a peninsula that's isolated from the rest of the island by a several thousand-foot pali, even just getting power to the community, let alone distributed around the community, is not an easy feat," she said.
"The power grid itself is quite old at this point. But essentially this project would overhaul that entire distribution system.”
The federally funded project will cost more than $15 million. Work will include replacing 110 power poles, 39,000 feet of cable and other maintenance.
Holman said the salt air, high winds, termites and other environmental factors take a toll on Kalaupapa’s infrastructure despite regular maintenance.
“Right now we're utilizing one barge a year to bring in big supplies to Kalaupapa," continued Holman. "And this project has a lot of materials. About 110 power poles that take up a lot of space on a barge… light fixtures, the cables, all sorts of things," she said.
"This project includes having the contractor contract their own barge to bring in supplies because it would take over the annual barge space that we would need with the state to be able to just operate and manage normal operations, let alone a construction project of this scale.”
Planning requires not only the logistics of bringing in supplies and equipment, but also housing and transportation for contractors.
Protection of the peninsula’s natural, cultural and historical resources, and the well-being of patient residents, were all carefully considered in the design and planning process.
Nearly a decade of planning has gone into preparing for the electrical work. The environmental assessment was recently released and is currently open for public comment.
The project is slated to begin in summer of 2025 and last about one year.
