Palolo flood solution proposed
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
The city is proposing to spend $190,000 to fix a long-standing drainage problem in Palolo that has created structural and flooding problems for residents of a small section of the community.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
The city filed a draft environmental assessment with the state Office of Environmental Quality Control last week for its Pooleka Street Drainage Improvements, which will include placing approximately 460 linear feet of 18-inch-diameter reinforced concrete pipe from the end of Pooleka Street to Wai'oma'o Stream.
Houses at the lower end of Pooleka Street in Palolo Valley, like this one, have been flooded during heavy rains. The city expects to spend $190,000 to install drains leading from the street to Wai'oma'o Stream.
Crews also will install three drainage inlets, three manholes and an outlet structure on the stream bank.
According to the assessment, surface runoff sheets across properties at the lower end of Pooleka Street, flooding street and yards, and sending water down a 10-foot-wide drainage easement that ends at the property of Irwin Keliipuleole, who accesses his home via Ahe Place, a dead-end road parallel to Pooleka. Keliipuleole has been complaining about the situation for 20 years, said David Bills of the consulting engineering firm Gray Hong Bills Nojima and Associates.
Because the water flows across Keliipuleole's lot, it has undermined the post and pier foundation and the flows have disqualified any termite treatment warranty for the property, according to the assessment.
Redirecting the surface runoff to underground pipes with drainage inlets should ease flooding during heavy rains, which has created a nuisance for the eight homes along the route, said Bills.
"All the runoff terminates at the (Keliipuleole) parcel," Bills said. "There is a drainage easement that runs down through there, but there is no pipe system. This project is strictly correcting a drainage problem."
When the subdivision was developed in 1969, a drain line was called for, but the state did not put it in, according to the assessment. The new pipe will bring the drainage up to current city standards.
Palolo Neighborhood Board chairwoman Darlene H. Nakayama said Palolo, like many south shore communities at the foot of the Ko'olau Range, can receive heavy mountain runoff.
"I don't think we have runoff as bad as Manoa or Haha'ione, where they have shifting soil and houses slipping down the mountain," Nakayama said. "We do have a slide area, but it's not affecting any houses."
Money for the project is expected in the city's 2003 fiscal budget, which would take effect July 1, 2003. Once the project begins, construction is expected to take about four months.
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What: Public comment on the Draft Environmental Assessment for the Pooleka Street Drainage Improvements is due by June 7. Where: Address comments to the city Department of Design and Construction, Attn: Gregory Sue, 650 S. King St., 11th Floor, Honolulu, 96813. Include copies for both the consultant and Office of Environmental Quality Control.
Comment on the project
