Repaving Kalanianaole
now delayed till August

Answer: Initially the state Department of Transportation had plans to repave Kalanianaole Highway -- from Castle Junction to Castle Medical Center -- in April. Then they pushed the project to last month, citing changes to their design plan.

Now work is scheduled to start in August.

The additional two months, said Transportation Department spokesman Scott Ishikawa, were needed to make more changes -- and wait for money to fund them.

Ishikawa said that rather than digging up just two inches of the roadway, which was the original plan, the state wants to take up six inches and "fix some of the road's foundation."

"When we surveyed the area," he said, "we felt we needed to go deeper."

Ishikawa could not provide the project's total cost or its original estimate by press time.

He did say, though, that the additional work will give the highway a "longer shelf life" and will be cheaper in the long run.

"A lot of people think that potholes start from the top, but a lot of them start from the foundation on up," Ishikawa said. "It's better just to fix the road foundation" than to simply repave.

The state already has the necessary permits for the project. Ishikawa said roadwork will likely start on the highway's Kailua-bound lanes.

He could not provide a definite start date.