In its Sunday edition, the Honolulu Advertiser has a big breakdown of the ongoing to $2.3 million refurbishment of the Honolulu International Airport. The refurb is much needed. The airport is well known for subpar infrastructure. It uses 1970s-era shuttle buses without air conditioning to move passengers from one terminal to the other. The roof leaks, the bathrooms shut down in power outages, the shopping is minimal and boring and the food offerings are horrific compared to marquee airports like Liberty in Newark. There are no people movers and not even any zippy carts to move the elderly, handicapped and large families to and from the somewhat distant gates. So, of course, the big spend is welcome.

But I'm kinda confused here. Among the refurbishments will be putting the explosives detection equipment behind the counters, improving restaurants, building a better shuttle bus system and installing people movers. Am I missing something here or does a $2.3 billion price tag sound ridiculously high for such improvements, particularly when the core structure will remain largely untouched? Wouldn't it have been better to knock the whole thing down, take the $2.3 billion and build a new one from scratch with state-of-the-art facilities and a modern design that improves on the tomb-like effect of the current concrete monster? The article does mention that the food establishments will take on a more local flavor featuring more island beers -- a welcome addition. And more Starbucks (cough, cough). Former rocker and Maui restaurateur Sammy Haggar is even mentioned as the possible proprietor of a new eatery in the redone airport, as is local culinary notable Alan Wong. All of which would be good, except for the pricetag. Knock it down, I say. And let Sammy Hagar oversee the rebuilding effort. It might get finished a lot faster since he can't drive 55.

Note -- shuttle buses mentioned above are called the Wiki Wiki Bus, which some believe is where the term wiki came from. Wiki also means "quickly" in Hawaiian.

Image via Flickr/cogdogblog

—Alex, 04/08/07