'Cleaner' Quarry Road median to get makeover
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer
KAILUA — A triangle median on Kapa'a Quarry Road that has been a dumping ground for derelict cars, trash and construction debris for decades is the focus of a beautification project that planners hope will discourage people from leaving waste there.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
The area, across from the Model Airplane Field, has been cleaned, cleared and covered with mulch. An architect is preparing a plan for the project, which must meet city approval since the city owns most of the property there. Businessman John King owns about one-third of the site and said he was willing to donate it to the city on a long-term lease.
Punahou freshman Ashley Galacgac, 14, of Salt Lake, collected trash off Kapa'a Quarry Road during a November cleanup. A nearby median has also been cleared and is slated for a beautification project.
The area includes a fenced off segment that contains utilities and is not considered a park, but people have stopped there to eat their lunch, said Jim Wood, a member of the Windward Ahupua'a Alliance.
Construction on the project could take place as soon as January, Wood said.
For a year and a half the alliance has helped organize cleanups on Kapa'a Quarry Road that skirts portions of Kawai Nui Marsh, enlisting hundreds of volunteers, local businesses and community organizations. Tons of material have been removed including household items, yard clippings and old buildings from properties along the road.
The Kapa'a Road Working Group formed and lobbied for laws to address illegal dumping, hired police to patrol the area and offered a reward for conviction of illegal dumpers. King and his crew have cleared land under monkeypod trees, opening an expansive view of the marsh and Mount Olomana.
The beautification project has received a $7,500 grant from the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, Wood said, adding that a partnership of businesses, the city, organizations and residents is working on the plan.
"We've been using that area for staging our quarterly cleanups and the fact that it's been rather unpleasant at times is something that disturbs us," he said. "The last time we were there, the first thing we did was scour the area."
Wood said the plan will be simple, including trees, some brush and maybe grass. The site had been landscaped before but someone stole the plants, he said.
"So one of our plans is to have nothing that is particularly attractive to steal, something that could be pulled up, hauled off and planted someplace else," Wood said.
The land falls under the city's Department of Environmental Services, which operates a refuse collection and transfer station nearby.
Deborah BOoker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Frank Doyle, environmental services director, said the city would help implement the project, but would not want the area to be considered a park.
The triangle median on Kapa'a Quarry Road was once a dumping ground. It has since been cleaned, cleared and covered with mulch.
"I'm not too keen on having it as a place where people come up and get their coffee in the morning because it gets dangerous," Doyle said.
The triangle median sits in the middle of converging roads where huge dump trucks, cement trucks and city refuse trucks travel.
In another effort to prevent illegal dumping the city has extended the hours of its Kapa'a Transfer Station, which now accepts trash from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Doyle said a steady stream of people visit the station in the later hours and he believes that has prevented illegal dumping on the road and at the median.
The city has been cooperating with the cleanups, and Doyle said the group has done some exciting work. "We support their efforts there," he said.
Reach Eloise Aguiar at 234-5266 or eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.
