Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Workmen remove the road that was built on the beach
at Waimea Bay after the March 6 rockslide. The beach
should be back to normal in two weeks.

Beach at Waimea
is almost its old self

Star-Bulletin staff

The beach at Waimea Bay is beginning to look like itself again.

Construction crews are removing what the state has called the Menehune Connector Road.

The temporary road was installed after a rockslide on March 6 forced closing a part of Kamehameha Highway near the bay.

Kiewit Pacific Co., the temporary road's contractor, is expected to complete the work in two weeks.

State Department of Transportation spokeswoman Marilyn Kali said the crews will not be pushed to complete the job early. "We are taking our time," she said.

"We want to make sure we do a good job and get everything out of the sand we brought in."

This is good news for Beth Smith, lunch manager at Haleiwa Joe's Seafood Grill and a former Waimea Bay regular, who said she hasn't gone to the bay since the road closed but hopes it will return to its normal state.

"They did a great job repairing the road. I hope the cleanup goes as well," she said.

The temporary road was constructed from a substance called "geo-grid fabric."

The fabric is made of a honeycombed-shaped plastic that is filled with sand and topped with crushed coral. An earlier version of the road was washed away in a storm April 1.

Smith also expressed concern about possible debris that may have entered the water during construction.

Kali said filters were installed to prevent any material from entering the bay.