WAILUKU — Maui County officials say work to remove unstable rocks and to repair the undermined roadways and cliff sides in East Maui is on schedule to be completed by October, The Maui News reported.

That could end the nearly two-year closure of Pi'ilani Highway in East Maui that has disrupted lives for residents in the surrounding Kaupo and Kipahulu communities.

Deputy Public Works Director Michael Miyamoto said this week that the county has its last repair project out to bid. The contract will be for rockfall mitigation at Kalepa and Alelele to remove hazardous rocks and to stabilize the steep road cuts by October.

Pi'ilani Highway was ordered closed in December 2006 by then-Mayor Alan Arakawa, after he observed massive boulders still falling on the narrow coastal highway months after two severe earthquakes shook Hawai'i on Oct. 15, 2006. Surveys of geologists and federal officials found fresh cracks and fissures in cliffs above the highway, as well as slides that undermined the road.

A barricade was put up on the highway between Kaupo and Kipahulu when Arakawa saw tourists ignoring road closure signs — but the original barricade was repeatedly moved aside by residents who needed to travel to Hana.

A barricade made up of large boulders and metal bars has been removed from the Kukuiula Bridge at Lelekea. The barricade was recently moved to Kaapahu Bridge (closer to Kaupo) because members of the Kipahulu Community Association wanted access to the Lelekea beach area.

Residents at Kukuiula also said they were being impacted by people parking near the barricade, Miyamoto said.

He noted that an inadequate barricade, one that could be moved, was put up after a miscommunication between administration and field staff and that the problem has been corrected.

"The barricade is temporary until the county can reduce the eminent danger. The barricade is not intended to be easily removed," he said.

He added that the barricades have been vandalized repeatedly.

Pi'ilani Highway continues to be closed because of the rockfall hazard identified by Federal Emergency Management Agency geotechnical specialists, Miyamoto said. Whether there is a barricade, travel through the road is not recommended.

Other repair work along the highway is progressing at Manawainui Gulch, where netting still needs to be completed along the cliffside, Miyamoto said.

Work to restore undermined sections of the road was completed in December.

When construction begins at the final project at Kalepa and Alelele, equipment will be staged on the roadway and all access along the effected section will be blocked, he said.

For Kipahulu residents, it can't be completed soon enough. Residents Mercury Bleu and Sky Kinser urged installation of a gate that could be locked while allowing residents to pass through.

"We can take care of business and not have to go the Hana way," Bleu said.

She said she is willing to assume all risks of traveling the Pi'ilani Highway.

Kinser said residents of the isolated area were cut off recently by a slide on the Hana section of the highway and the barricade on the Kaupo section.

"We feel like we're in a movie theater that is filled up and the door is locked. When someone screams fire, what's going to happen?" she said.

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