Reinforced Round Top now awaits road rebuild
Workers have nearly completed the stabilization of a steep and crumbling hillside along Round Top Drive to prevent future landslides.
City workers are expected to start reconstructing four sections of Round Top Drive by mid-September, with plans to reopen the road by early next year.
Heavy rain in March caused multiple landslides along a section of Round Top where it makes a hairpin turn. The slides damaged roads and threatened properties below on Maunalaha Road.
The Department of Land and Natural Resources is overseeing the current work. Equipped with excavators, workers are cutting a large section of the slope along 420 feet of road from a 65-degree angle to a safer 45-degree angle. The slope reaches heights of 70 to 80 feet, chief engineer Eric Hirano said.
About 14,000 cubic yards of soil -- a mixture of volcanic cinder and sand -- is being removed from the hillside, and none of it is going to waste. The soil is being taken to harbors, parks and golf courses, including the Waipio Soccer Complex, Ala Wai Golf Course and Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery.
So far, workers have removed 27 truckloads of soil and 23 large trees from the hillside since earlier last month, DLNR Chairman Peter Young said.
Once the slope is cut, contractors will install nylon mesh anchored with metal stakes. Hydromulch is to be applied to grow vegetation to hold soil in place, Young said. Concrete jersey barriers will also be installed beneath the slope on Round Top Drive to provide more protection.
The state agency is consulting with Earth Tech Inc. to evaluate the site and recommend what more needs to be done. The first phase of the project is estimated to cost $700,000, Young said, and is slated to be completed Sept. 16.
After that the city is expected to start reconstructing four sections of Round Top Drive, two each on the upper and lower roadways.
About 220 feet of the road was damaged by the landslides, city spokesman Bill Brennan said.
Once a contractor is selected, the city will work with them on protective measures for Maunalaha residents, Brennan said.
The estimated $4 million road project could take up to five months to complete. The city is eligible to tap into funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover 75 percent of the project cost.
State officials plan to return to the site once the city completes the roadwork, to evaluate what more needs to be done to stabilize the slope in the second phase, Young said.
Longtime resident Frank Uehara said the joint city and state effort had been efficient. The sound of excavators removing dirt and multiple large trucks traveling along the roadway is a "sound of relief," said Uehara, whose family members have lived on Round Top Drive for three generations.
"That sound is like music to our ears, now that construction is going on," he said. "We can see the coming of the future already."