Maui culvert collapse
raises safety concern
WAILEA >> The collapse of a culvert has prompted an engineering review of a main coastal road in South Maui and criticism from residents as traffic is rerouted through neighborhoods.
Maui County public works officials said they are looking at the storm drains beneath Wailea Alanui Drive, after the collapse of a seven-foot wide culvert under the road.
The road between the Four Seasons Resort and Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa collapsed Jan. 23 as a small car drove over the corroded culvert and skipped the hole, blowing out two tires, said Wailea Community Association general manager Bud Pikrone.
"If it was an SUV it would have gone all the way through," Pikrone said. "Luckily, nobody got hurt."
The road repairs are taking place at the height of the Valley Isle's visitor season.
Traffic to the Four Seasons Resort and properties further south has been re-routed along secondary residential roads mauka of Wailea Alanui Drive.
The initial date for reopening the road was Feb. 9.
GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM
The collapse of a culvert beneath a south Maui road has led county officials to reassess other culverts' structural integrity.
Public works Deputy Director Milton Arakawa said county engineers are in the process of assessing the structural integrity of other culverts under the road.
Arakawa said yesterday the road will probably remain closed past Feb. 17, because construction has to accommodate existing electrical and telephone lines running in ducts along the road's makai side.
He said the county is meeting with officials from Maui Electric Co. Ltd. and Verizon Hawaii and should know by today the length of time for the repairs.
Pikrone said he's been told county workers took only four days to fix a similar hole in 1996.
"I don't understand what's taking so long," Pikrone said.
Pikrone said the problem might have been prevented if public works officials had listened to the association in 2002. He said the association drew public works a diagram indicating the weaknesses in the culvert.
