Port Allen Harbor – Eleele HI

Description

The Army Corps of Engineers, the Public Works Administration, and the National Industrial Recovery Administration funded and conducted improvement operations in the Port Allen Harbor between 1934 and 1935. The work consisted of creating a 1,200 foot “rubble-mound breakwater,” and dredging the “harbor basin about 1,000 feet wide, 1,500 feet long, and 35 feet deep; and an entrance channel 500 feet wide and 35 feet deep.” The estimated cost of the work in 1933 was $ 880,000 for new work, of which 200,000 was the contribution of local entities. The estimated cost for annual maintenance was $15,000. In October 1935, about $680,000 were allotted under the National Industrial Recovery Act.

The 1939 Annual Report of the Board of Harbor Commissioners of the Territory of Hawaii notes that the Public Works Administration grant appropriation for improvements at Port Allen was $402,066, but $218,750 was allotted.

Per PWA records, the P.W.A. supplied a $401,904 grant for the project, whose total cost was $818,446. Construction occurred between Jan. 1938 and Oct. 1939.