CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Work progresses on a home on a hillside in Moanalua Valley. Residents worry that the construction could dislodge boulders.
Boulders concern Moanalua Valley residents are worried that construction across their homes on Ala Lani Street will dislodge large boulders similar to the one that killed a young woman in Nuuanu.
Moanalua residents
They worry that home
Landowners assess risks
construction by developer
Donald Lee could dislodge rocksBy Genevieve A. Suzuki
gsuzuki@starbulletin.comThe four homeowners have sent a letter to developer Donald Lee, owner of APEX Construction, saying they will hold him responsible if anything falls from the mountain, neighbor Glenn Wakai said yesterday.
"The Nuuanu people are saying it was an act of God. This is an act of humans," said Wakai, a candidate for the 31st House District, who lives three homes away from the group of four homeowners.
Lee is building a house against the mountainside. He was not available to comment on the homeowners' letter.
Kenny Tajiri, a subcontractor hired by Lee, said: "When I first saw this place, I thought, 'Whoa, boy. That thing in Nuuanu just happened and they still want to build.' You never know what's going to happen over here in the near future."
Tajiri said he isn't going to drill because he needs to excavate only 60 feet into the mountainside.
"We're just inching our way in," using a backhoe, Tajiri said.
Francis Chun, who has lived on Ala Lani Street since 1972, said he will feel better once the house is built.
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Developer Donald Lee is building a house against a hillside along Ala Lani Street in Moanalua Valley. Area residents have told Lee they will hold him responsible if boulders fall.
Chun noted that the new house may protect their homes.
"It will give some measure of protection for me and the people across the street," he said.
"But without the house there, the boulders can come right through the chain-link fence and land on the street," Chun said.
The homeowners acknowledge that their fears have been heightened by the Aug. 9 accident in which a 5-ton boulder crashed into a house on Henry Street in Nuuanu and killed Dara Onishi as she slept.
But Chun said boulders have fallen in front of his property throughout the years, including two in January, because of heavy rainfall.
In the past, the city has removed at least three boulders from Ala Lani Street, including a boulder that was about 7.5 tons, Chun said.
Chun said he is concerned that the recent construction will worsen conditions.
"We don't know what happens when you remove so much dirt and then the rain comes," Chun said.
"That's a legitimate concern for any homeowner," said City Councilman Romy Cachola, who represents Moanalua Valley.
Cachola said soil engineers have to inspect any site to make sure the health and safety of residents are not compromised.
City spokeswoman Carol Costa said Lee received his building permit from the city, which means that he submitted the required soil report.
Construction can affect landslide activity, said Stephen Martel, associate professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
"It can stabilize or destabilize the area, depending on what is done," Martel said. "It's not a black-and-white, one-size-fits-all situation."
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Since a Nuuanu woman died Aug. 9 when a 5-ton boulder crashed into her home, some Oahu landowners are considering rockfall assessments of hillside land. Some Oahu landowners
assessing rockfall risksBy Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.comMeanwhile, the state moves slowly toward its goal of risk-assessment of public parks and trails -- including rockfall hazards -- that it began three years ago after a Mother's Day 1999 rockslide killed eight at Sacred Falls State Park.
University of Hawaii structural geologist Steve Martel said he will be doing some consulting work for landowners to assess risks on or near their property.
"Many places on Oahu have steep slopes, and in the geological past there have been rocks that have come down," Martel said. "We don't know in general at what rate the rocks come down and have difficulty predicting when will they come down, or how big will they be when they come down."
Depending on the situation, Martel said, there are a number of mitigation measures a landowner may choose: applying mortar to rock faces, covering rock faces with wire mesh, or moving or destroying a boulder.
Residents of DHHL's Kalawahine Streamside development near Roosevelt High School have reported rocks and boulders rolling into their yards and want a study of uphill slopes. How quickly that will happen will depend on the availability of consulting geologists, said Department of Hawaiian Home Lands spokesman Francis Apoliona.
"I suspect that anybody living in a valley that has slopes may be worried about what happened in Nuuanu," Apoliona said.
The Department of Land and Natural Resources, which controls more than 1 million acres of undeveloped land, is not changing the pace of its $800,000 Environmental Risk Assessment and Management Plan because of the Nuuanu accident, said Curt Cottrell, director of the DLNR Na Ala Hele Trail and Access Program.
The project's goal is to decide where the state should warn people with signs and where it should simply keep them away. Sacred Falls has been closed since the rockslide and there are no plans to reopen it.
Attorney Arthur Park, who is representing families of those killed or injured in the Sacred Falls rockslide, said: "Sacred Falls is a public park, where people not only have a right to go, but were being invited to come and recreate -- right where parks people knew rocks were falling in the area of the waterfall."
