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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, April 12, 2007

Rockslide work closes road tonight

Advertiser Staff

Kamehameha Highway at Waimea Bay will be temporarily closed overnight today, from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., for work related to Saturday's rockslide, the state Department of Transportation announced last night.

The road will be closed so crews can place concrete barriers along the area where boulders smashed into the retaining fence. The barriers are a safety measure, protecting work crews from traffic during fence repair work.

Drivers are advised to plan for an alternative route during tonight's road closure.

The Department of Transportation said plans now call for a temporary protective fence and barrier to be built in the next two weeks, which will allow the highway to be reopened to two lanes of traffic, one in each direction.

Work on a permanent replacement fence will follow.

North Shore residents and others who travel through the area have been using a single contraflow lane at the rockfall site. In the first days after Saturday's rockslide, the contraflow was open only during peak traffic hours, but it opened 24 hours a day on Tuesday.

The rockslide happened in the same area as a 2000 slide. After that incident, the state erected the safety fence and moved part of the road away from the steep hillside.