The 24-year-old worker from Oregon-based Hi-Tech Rockfall Construction, Inc. originally was in serious condition when he was taken to The Queen's Medical Center in serious condition, said Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the city's emergency services department.

He remained at Queen's today.

The worker had been helping to repair the site of April's Waimea Bay rockslide when he was hit in the face and ear by a rock that was being blasted from the hillside, Cheplic said.

The accident was reported at 8:59 a.m.

"He was clipped in the ear by falling rocks and taken to the hospital for stitches," said Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.

But Cheplic said workers detonated a charge that launched a 6-inch-diamater rock into the man's ear and the side of his head.

"The rock did not fall from above," Cheplic said. "He was wearing a helmet, but it (the rock) came at him from the side."

The injured man was working on the $150,000 state contract to remove hazardous rocks on the hillside, Ishikawa said.

"He's one of the workers trying to bring down rocks that are eventually going to fall," Ishikawa said.

In April, boulders rained down on Kamehameha Highway from the hillside, closing the only road around the North Shore.