Ranceford Yoshida, an engineer with Department of Land and Natural Resources, conducted an inspection yesterday of the rock that slid down a hill and landed against a home on Akowai Road in Nanakuli last week. Rod Anderson was drilling holes in the rock for a chemical expander that cracks it into more manageable pieces.
Crews in Nanakuli
looking for risky rocks
Workers will return to Nanakuli today to scour a hillside and mark for removal any boulders that pose a threat to homes on Akowai Road.
Crews began work yesterday to remove a roughly 10-ton boulder that slid 25 feet Thursday into the rear of a home at 87-1428 Akowai Road. Thirty-nine neighbors were evacuated, though all have returned to their homes, except Donna and Juan Navarro, who live in the unit struck by the boulder.
The accident came a few days after another boulder rolled from private land down a Nuuanu hillside into a home at 2745-A Henry St. No one was injured in either rockfall.
The Nanakuli boulder slid from state-owned land, and workers from Earth Tech Inc. will assess which others should be demolished and removed from the hill. The state hired the company as a consultant.
Yesterday, workers from Royal Contracting Co. Ltd. and Prometheus Construction drilled holes 1 1/2 inches in diameter and 6 to 8 inches apart into the side of the boulder facing the mountain. They poured chemical expanders into the holes to help break the boulder apart.
After two to three hours, the chemicals expand and create cracks in the boulder, said Ardalan Nikou, a civil engineer with Earth Tech.
"Once it's broken up into pieces, they will remove the boulder," he said.
The boulder and any others that pose a threat to homes are expected to be removed by the end of the week.
The boulder measures about 5 feet by 6 feet by 8 feet and slid only a short distance down the 30-degree slope, Nikou said.
"It really didn't impact the home," he said.
Some residents said they suspected for years that boulder would one day roll down.
"That was a total freak accident," said Marla Flores, who lives in unit K. "The state is taking care of it, which is good. This mountain get plenty loose rocks."
