Keauhou Hotel Demolition

Kona, Hawaii

The Keauhou hotel sits in Kona on the west coast of the “Big Island” of Hawaii. This Oceanside hotel was demolished so the 23-acre site can be repurposed into a cultural center and community gathering space.

Kiewit’s contract for the hotel demolition included abatement, soft demolition, structural demolition, concrete crushing, earthwork and landscaping. The team successfully completed the abatement and soft demolition work in late 2017. The scope of the project required our team to follow strict procedures for enclosing the space, then testing, removing and disposing of the material. The bulk of the work included the structural demolition of the 253,000 SF hotel. This project itself was challenging enough but to add to it, 30% of the work was done over the ocean with endangered turtles sunbathing nearby. The challenges of working over the ocean are best demonstrated by the fact that it took our client five years to get the permits in place to even make this project happen.