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By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
At West Loch Estates, Laura Hirayama's pen points
out an uneven area in the concrete street.

‘Nightmare’ worries
West Loch residents

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

City Managing Director Ben Lee boasts that the tree-lined West Loch Estates won a design excellence award from the American Institute of Architects in 1989.

But West Loch residents who ride TheBus say they need to take care not to trip on the cracked and, in some instances, "lifted" sidewalks along Laulaunui Street.

Wheelchair users worry about pathways that lead not to curb cuts but to steep drops onto the openings of storm drains.

And parents need to watch their children along the loose rocks of walls that are starting to crumble.

All this is in addition to the rusting ornate street-light poles that have already been publicized.

"Our community has inherited a nightmare," said Laura Hirayama, president of the homeowners association.

By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Mel Kiaaina talks about his girlfriend's home, which
has rocks missing from the garden wall.

Lee said the problems are minor ones typical of housing subdivisions and that the city has been working with the homeowners to fix them. The city has budgeted at least $1.325 million for repairs.

City workers have done emergency patchwork to several sidewalks along Kapapapuhi Street, the so-called "green belt" road that leads to a shoreline park.

But other sidewalk hazards remain and new ones are popping up all the time, Hirayama said, the result of the roots of monkeypod, kukui nut and other trees.

"They put in trees that have very aggressive tree roots," Hirayama said.

Hirayama said the situation is dangerous for the frail and those in wheelchairs or who have baby strollers.

Resident Leola Waters said she has tripped while walking into the subdivision from TheBus stop.

Lee said tree roots breaking into sidewalks is a problem throughout the island. "That doesn't mean we're not going to plant trees in the city," Lee said.

By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
An area near the West Loch homes is littered with
trash from passersby.

"There should have been root barriers around the root balls," Lee said. "If they (design consultants) didn't put root barriers, they should have done that."

The city allotted $75,000 in the current year's budget to deal with the problem.

There are also a number of holes, cracks, missing rocks and loose rocks in the half-mile lava-rock wall along Fort Weaver Road and the various walls on Laulaunui.

"There are children playing along the rock walls and it's dangerous," Hirayama said.

Waters said an additional problem is that mice are coming through the walls and into the backyards of some homes.

Lee said the city has identified only five sections of the wall along Fort Weaver Road "where there are some rocks that are loose."

Repairing those sections won't be difficult, he said.

The city allocated $250,000 this fiscal year for the project. The Design and Construction Department has to put the project out to bid, Lee said.

Another problem is the more than a dozen walkways that lead from the subdivision's cul-de-sacs onto Kapapapuhi Street.

There are ramps that meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements on the Kapapapuhi side of the sidewalks but the walkways end up along storm drains on the cul-de-sac side.

"The sidewalk ends up at a storm drain," Hirayama said. "Little children have to walk over the storm drain to get to the park. An unsuspecting person going through the walkway is going to fall off the curb and into the storm drain."

She said the problem is design.

Lee said the Department of Design and Construction must either design ramps over each of the storm drains "or we will provide a wheelchair ramp around the drainage catch basins."

Lee said he had no cost estimates but is hoping construction can begin later this year.

The city appropriated $4 million in this year's budget to make sidewalks in West Loch Estates and elsewhere on Oahu compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Then there are the light poles. The City Council this month approved a last-minute appropriation of $1 million to replace the most severely rusted structures after one of the poles fell down several weeks ago.

Lee said the problem results from the poles' not being galvanized before installation 10 years ago.

Ewa Councilman John DeSoto, who has pushed for funding of the corrections in West Loch, said: "They should have taken a little more care in planning it, looked at all the things the private sector would."