Makapu'u rockslide study delayed

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Bureau

WAIMANALO — A study of ways to prevent a rockslide along Makapu'u, averting the kind of road blockage that paralyzed parts of the North Shore last year, has been delayed, according to a state transportation engineer.

The company under contract is still working on the study, but the state engineer said it will take several more months because of administrative problems.

The $1.3 million study was to have been completed this past summer. Park Engineering has the contract to review three or four options.

Rockslides are common around the rocky cliff overlooking Kalaniana'ole Highway, said Wilson Ho, a Waimanalo resident who drives twice daily through that route. Ho said he says a prayer every time he drives in the area, aware that in 1995 someone was injured when a 500-pound boulder fell on a pickup truck.

"We're kind of scared every time we drive there," said Ho, who also is chairman of the Waimanalo Neighborhood Board. "The rocks always come and it's about to get worse, especially since we're heading into the rainy season. The rain will bring the bigger boulders down."

The most recent rockslide at Makapu'u was in February. It closed the Honolulu-bound lane near the lookout for about two hours. Police said they found four or five basketball-sized rocks that had fallen onto the road.

Last year's rockslide that closed Kamehameha Highway at Waimea Bay, and effectively cut off access to the North Shore from the Windward side for three months, made many Waimanalo residents renew their quest to bring the questionable condition of the Makapu'u cliff to the fore.

At many recent meetings over the state's plans to improve the Ka Iwi shoreline, Waimanalo residents stepped forward to remind officials of the dangerous conditions around the point.

Transportation officials have said options for the area could include boring a tunnel through the mountain, realigning Kalaniana'ole Highway to go through an old Board of Water Supply service tunnel, or scaling back the rock formations.

Several meetings have been held in the community, Ho said. But no plans or presentations have come of them, he said.

"We've been promised a number of times, but we haven't heard anything," Ho said. "We've talked so many times about this, we're blue in the face."