The state Department of Transportation installed portable concrete barriers in Waimanalo yesterday to try to make a stretch of Kalanianaole Highway safer. Waimanalo S-curve
gets barriersResidents complain that they
are set up in the wrong placeBy Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.comTwo people have died in separate head-on traffic collisions at the Kalanianaole Highway S-curve in the past two years.
"It was a commitment by the director, Rodney Haraga, to put some safety feature in the approach to the S-curve," said Glenn Yasui, state highways administrator.
But area residents feel the barriers are in the wrong place.
"It's a start, but it wasn't where my husband got hit and where the other accidents happened. It doesn't do us justice," said Harriet Seabury.
Her husband, Ramus Seabury, 62, died Feb. 23 when a pickup truck traveling in the opposite direction crossed the center line at the S-curve fronting the Olomana Golf Links and crashed into his pickup.
On Jan. 2, 2001, Lorrie-Ann Wiley was killed near the same spot by a drunken driver who also crossed the center line.
The barriers end before the entrance to the Olomana Golf Links because there is not enough room for them in the S-curve, Yasui said.
"The S-curve is the only thing we're worried about," said Wilson Ho, Waimanalo Neighborhood Board chairman.
The barriers will remain there until the state comes up with a permanent solution, Yasui said.
The state paid a contractor $11,000 to place 720 feet of concrete barriers on the Kailua side of the S-curve separating opposite directions of traffic.
Following Ramus' death, the state also placed more raised yellow ceramic pavement markers, or "rumble strips," on the roadway to warn drivers to slow down.