Community questions use of rockfall mesh
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer
HAWAI'I KAI — Residents upslope of the Lalea condominium have concerns about Kamehameha Schools' plan to use helicopters to hoist a three-layer wire mesh over the mountainside.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Some of the anchor bolts will be just 20 feet from their property lines.
Residents of Mariner's Ridge are worried that the rockfall containment work will unsettle their foundations, affect wildlife and require maintenance.
"You can't do this kind of thing without getting people concerned," said Morton Cotlar, president of the Mariner's Ridge Maintenance Association. "Those people along the ridge deserve some consideration, concrete assurances that their property won't be impaired in any way and rendered vulnerable to earthquakes to a degree different without those holes."
Mariner's Ridge residents are concerned that the work being done by landowner Kamehameha Schools and developer Castle & Cooke to shore up the mountain will unsettle their foundations, affect wildlife and require maintenance.
"I'm hoping we'll see something in writing soon," said Jennifer Herald, a Mariner's Ridge resident whose home overlooks Lalea. "We weren't brought into this until three weeks ago. We're very upset with the situation and frustrated. We don't want to see the mesh installed at all."
A meeting held last month for interested residents of Mariner's Ridge was poorly attended, Herald said. That's when Kamehameha Schools and Castle & Cooke presented plans that involve using a helicopter from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 10 to 15, two days in August and two days in September.
The $4 million project addresses the rockslide risk that emerged when a 5-ton boulder tumbled down the mountainside on Thanksgiving. Geologists and engineers recommended a two-phase project that they believe will ease the risk of rockfalls at Lalea. The first phase includes expanding an existing catchment system and the second phase, including the three-layer mesh, calls for stabilizing loose or cracked boulders and installing wire mesh cages around 22 rocks identified as potentially unstable.
"It is our intention to communicate with everyone who's affected by this," said Kekoa Paulsen, Kamehameha Schools spokesman.
"We've had a lot of conversations with some residents of Mariner's Ridge. We'd like to talk with anyone who has a question."
The company hired to install the mesh has extensive experience on the Mainland, Paulsen said. The mesh is guaranteed for 50 years. If it needs replacement, another layer is added.
"The system we're installing is more extensive than the one the state used at Makapu'u," he said. "It's what we believe is a permanent solution to the current situation. If something changes as time goes on, then we'll have to address it then."
A $1.3 million project to lay steel mesh over the face of the cliffs above Makapu'u Beach was completed recently. That work was designed to prevent rocks from falling onto Kalaniana'ole Highway.
Residents along the ridge facing the Lalea development would prefer a catchment basin along the perimeter of the mountain, much like the one that was just expanded by Kamehameha Schools and Castle & Cooke. Herald fears that once one developer and landowner get approval to install the mesh, it will lead to other mountains being covered in a curtain of mesh.
"Then we'll have the entire island covered," Herald said. "The homes were built too darn close to the mountain."
Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.
