February - March 2008
what a little imagination will do
The new Hilton Lagoon
By Alvin Koo
It took tons of rock. Truckload after truckload of sand. The designers ripped out the old manmade island and built a new one. They trucked away old muck. Filled the lagoon with rock.
Covered
it with a plastic sheet.
Covered that with
two feet of sand.
Viola. A new lagoon.
And it really looks nice.
They say, in the old days, after Henry J. Kaiser first built the Duke Paoa Kahanamoku Lagoon, people swam in it. I don’t remember.
I do remember years of seeing a beautiful body of water go unused. The bottom was mucky. It was not just a few years of muck. That area had always been a marshy kind of reef. When the bulldozers and front end loaders went to work, they discovered how deep the muck went. Way deep.
They dug a lot of it out and filled the rest with boulders. Not just your tiny boulders but big ones three, four feet across.
Then they covered that with gravel.
$15 million worth of work.
That’s surprising since the lagoon is really owned by the state of Hawaii.
Hilton has a deed to use the lagoon in perpetuity as long as it’s kept clean for recreational purposes.
“The Lagoon Rejuvenation fits perfectly in the “story” about Waikiki’s continual transformation and improvements, but with a twist,” says Jon Conching, regional vice president for sales & marketing, Hilton Hawaii.
“The significant additions and improvements to retail and commercial facilities throughout Waikiki, are focused on bringing ‘what’s new’ to our visitors. Hilton’s improvements to the Lagoon are of an environmental nature, restoring a unique landmark for the benefit of Hilton’s guests and residents.”
The project is a “gift” to the people of Waikiki and Hawaii, the hotel said.
The old lagoon was up to 14 feet deep. I never knew that. I never went swimming in it and tried diving to the bottom. It was always kind of spooky, to tell the truth.
The
new lagoon is a flat 5 feet deep, in the center, with a shallow slope
all around. It uses a water circulation system from seven saltwater wells
250 feet deep that will draw 15,000 gallons of water per minute from the
ocean.
This will turn the water in the lagoon about five times a day.
That means the lagoon will always have a positive flush going on. Even
when it rains. The mucky brown water coming down from the vallies will
not flush into the lagoon.
In addition, the lagoon has been landscaped with a boardwalk, waterfalls, 60 coconut trees, a few park benches, lauapaka and other beach plants.
The project is tied in with the Hilton Grand Vacation Club’s new Grand Waikikian timeshare project, which will have a pool area fronting the timeshare and next to the lagoon.
Builders included Delta Construction Corp., Alcon and Associates, Tom Manace Water Resource Engineering, and Belt Collins.
Alvin Koo has been a writer and public relations practitioner in Hawai‘i for 30 years. His book “Stuff Nobody Told Me” can be found at Waikikinews.com
