Hikers may have to pay to get to 'Heaven'
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
You can take the Stairway to Heaven, but you may have to pay.
Advertiser library photo • Sept. 18, 1999
The city yesterday started an $875,000 repair job on the old Coast Guard Omega Antenna Station maintenance stairway, which climbs 2,200 feet up a Haiku Valley cliff.
David Wittig, a Haiku resident, makes his way down the "Stairway to Heaven." Repairs to the crumbling stairway are expected to be complete in October 2002.
When it is finished in October 2002, City Councilman Steve Holmes said, it will be safer than it ever was — and there may be a fee to use it.
A nonprofit corporation could manage the stairs more actively and reduce city liability, he said.
The Coast Guard closed the 3,922 stairs to the public in 1986.
Still, hundreds of eco-tourists and residents still trudge up every week for a view that stretches from Mokapu to La'ie and across the Ko'olau mountains to the Wai'anae range.
Now, guards have been posted to keep hikers away until repairs are finished.
Nakoa Construction will use helicopters to airlift new stair sections to stations along the route.
The city is developing a master plan for the 600-acre valley.
