Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company, Inc.

Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company is the largest general contractor in Hawaii, founded in 1902 by Walter F. Dillingham and headquartered on Kapiolani Boulevard in Honolulu. It works across building construction, heavy civil and infrastructure, and marine and harbor projects, serving hospitality, healthcare, education, and federal and municipal clients throughout the islands and Guam. Recent and notable work includes the Victoria Place residential tower in Honolulu, Aulani, A Disney Resort and Spa, the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant UV channels, renovations at Honolulu Pier 30 and the Halekulani Hotel, and the 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team Readiness Center. The firm is part of the joint venture with Dragados USA and Orion building Dry Dock 5 at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, the largest construction award NAVFAC Pacific has made.

Work at Hawaiian Dredging is organised into five divisions rather than one operating group. Building handles retail space, luxury high-rises and condominiums. Heavy covers roads, bridges and utility infrastructure. Waterfront and Foundations builds harbours and beach improvements and puts footings under structures. Power and Industrial works on the systems behind lighting, water and waste disposal. Commercial takes on hospitals, residential communities and resort buildings. The company self-performs more work than any other contractor in the state, which is what lets it staff all five at once and offer their combined resources on a single job.

Its service list starts before construction. Preconstruction covers estimating, site planning, structure design and materials sourcing during the planning and design phase, aimed at finding the most cost-effective route to an owner’s objectives. Design-build combines that with general contracting and design services for fast-tracking complex projects, drawing on established architect relationships to shorten the design cycle. On the construction side the self-performed trades include sitework, deep foundations, concrete and masonry, layout, rough carpentry and finish work.

The early decades explain the name. First projects included dredging the entrance to Pearl Harbor and building the Ala Wai Canal, along with the development of more than 5,000 acres of Honolulu waterfront between Honolulu Harbor and Waikiki. Two buildings from that era, the King Kalakaua Building that serves as Honolulu’s main post office and the Honolulu Museum of Art, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. By 1930 the firm had moved on to Pearl Harbor’s dry docks and the infrastructure supporting the Navy’s largest vessels. After the Second World War a merger with Hawaiian Contracting produced Hawaiian Dredging Construction, Ltd., which built much of the territory’s road network before capping the run with Phase I of Ala Moana Shopping Center.

Later work moved into resorts and civil infrastructure: the Four Seasons Wailea and the Hawaii Prince Hotel, the Fairmont Orchid and Lanai’s Manele Bay Hotel, tunnel work on the Halawa side of the H-3 Freeway beginning in 1991, and Hualalai on the Big Island as prime contractor for Kajima Construction Services. That last relationship led to the company becoming a subsidiary of Kajima USA. Projects since 2000 include the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine in Kakaako, the general purpose apron and ASAP building at Kahului Airport, the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor floating docks, the Kealakaha Stream Bridge replacement and the twin towers of the Moana Pacific condominium.

Hawaiian Dredging holds Hawaii contractor license ABC-24018 and ranks consistently near the top of Building Industry Magazine’s annual list of the state’s 25 largest contractors. On the subcontracting side it maintains an approved subcontractor and vendor database and specifically invites small disadvantaged, 8(a), HUBZone, women-owned, veteran-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned and minority-owned firms into its bid solicitations.