Project Title: Replace Pua ‘Ākala Barn (FFS #R1BC)

State: Hawai’i

Project Description: The Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge staff currently uses the 4,400-square-foot Pua ‘Ākala barn to store its heavy equipment, tools, and supplies to provide limited protection from the weather in this high elevation rain forest. Constructed in 1930 and never meeting building codes, the building is now dilapidated and close to collapse. The metal roof and siding panels are heavily corroded, and numerous holes exist. Many panels are loose and about to fall off the building, and all doors and windows are broken. Wooden wall and roof structural members are all rotten, and some are broken. Deterioration of the barn is so great that a major repair is economically unfeasible to stabilize the building.

This project will remove the dilapidated barn and replace it with a new structure to be built near the Refuge’s Administrative Site, where power and water are readily available and other facilities are located. The new building will have four bays (three with gravel surface and a fourth with a concrete floor), office space, a restroom, and loft storage for supplies.

For more information, check out the Hakalau Forest Fact Sheet.

News Releases:

Stimulus Funding to Replace Storage Facility at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge

Photos:

Originally posted 10/30/2009