Q. It seems like the city's McCully pool has been closed for a long time. What's happening and when will work be done?

A. The pool has been closed for a long time because of technical problems and won't be reopened before 2010, according to city Design and Construction director Eugene Lee.

The McCully facility was special because the gymnasium and pool were structurally connected to have the gym provide support to an above-ground pool, he said.

"Unfortunately, the situation led to an overstressing of both facilities and the solution was to structurally separate the two, and retrofit both to function as stand-alone facilities," he said.

Lee said there was some discussion of eliminating the pool, but the city decided to save the pool in a two-phase project: The first phase, to retrofit the gymnasium, began in June 2005 and is nearing completion. It includes structural repairs, re-roofing and installing a new floor. During construction the city found more structural problems and had to postpone scheduled renovation of restrooms, offices and gymnastics area and work on access to the disabled.

The second phase will complete the renovation work to the gym that was delayed and restore the above-ground swimming pool. Lee estimates the gymnasium will be ready to reopen in early 2009 and the pool sometime in 2010.

Q. There is a very rough stretch of a few hundred feet on Likelike Highway just past the tunnel, Honolulu-bound. Why wasn't this paved when the rest of the highway was resurfaced last year? Also, can you find out when radio reception will be back in the tunnels?

A. Likelike Highway on the Kane'ohe side of the tunnels is scheduled to be repaved starting this month, said state transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa. During that project, a work order will be placed to repave the 300-foot stretch on the Kalihi side of the tunnels during the construction.

"The reason we held off repaving that short stretch of the highway was because of the heavy equipment for the tunnel improvements parked outside the Kalihi tunnel entrance during that particular work," Ishikawa said. If heavy construction vehicles constantly run over new pavement, that would have meant resurfacing it again.

Ishikawa had no firm idea on when the radio reception could be fixed.

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