DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM The hillside next to Kailua Road has been cut back, with netting to help prevent slippage, as seen yesterday. Lanes will be closed next week as crews realign the road.

Kailua hillside secure

Crews finish stabilization work after heavy rain triggered several mudslides

Kailua motorists say they will have to worry less about falling rocks in the drive along Kailua Road now that construction workers finished stabilization work to a hillside yesterday.

Chuck Prentiss, chairman of the Kailua Neighborhood Board's transportation committee, said, "We're glad the state acted promptly on that. It will be a lot more safer."

In March 2006, multiple landslides occurred between St. John Lutheran Church and Hamakua Drive due to heavy rains that lasted for more than a month, prompting state transportation officials to take action.

Work to the hillside began in November.

Starting next week, lane closures will occur along Kailua Road as workers realign the roadway and do other work for two months.

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DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Now that the hill next to Kailua Road has been stabilized, work to put the road back to its original position will begin.

Contractors completed stabilization work to a hillside yesterday to try to prevent rocks from falling onto Kailua Road.

"It was a dangerous situation," said Chuck Prentiss, chairman of the Kailua Neighborhood Board's transportation committee.

Starting next week, the state Department of Transportation will close lanes along Kailua Road to allow workers to realign the roadway, reconstruct the median and redo landscaping. Work is expected to take two months.

In March 2006, multiple landslides occurred during heavy rains. The site is ranked No. 8 on the state's top 10 lists of rock hazard sites. The list grew from a 2003 study and has yet to be updated.

Work to the hillside began in November. The project's cost was estimated at $5.8 million.

Workers from Prometheus Construction built a concrete trench with baffles that run above and along the sides of the hillside to divert rainwater into a storm drain.

Cable mesh was draped over one part of the hillside, while anchored wire mesh with bolts was draped over another section.

Cliff Tillotson, Prometheus vice president, said drilling more than 900 bolts encased with grout into the hillside was the most challenging part of the project because of the fractured rock they dealt with. Bolts were drilled 30 feet into the hillside.

An impact fence, about 450 feet long and 10 feet high, was installed near the top of the hillside to help prevent some large boulders from rolling down. About 25 large boulders located atop the hillside were either demolished or anchored down, said Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the Department of Transportation.

Sharon Geary, president of the Lani-Kailua Outdoor Circle, said she was pleased with the outcome.

The organization and Transportation Department agreed that the state will replant 25 loulu palm trees that were uprooted when the median was removed to construct a temporary second lane. The lane was needed to allow contractors to work on the hillside and to reduce traffic congestion for Kailua-bound motorists.

It was also agreed that the state will also do a $150,000 landscaping project on another section of Kailua Road. The work will begin once realignment is completed.

Next year the state will work on a stabilization project along Kalanianaole Highway between Le Jardin Academy and Castle Junction. The site is ranked No. 4 on the list of rockslide hazard sites on Oahu. Anchored wired mesh is to be installed to slopes on both sides of the roadway, Ishikawa said.

"There is a lot of erosion," Prentiss said. Every time heavy rain occurs, sediment goes into the marsh, he added.