Rocky road: Preventative measures to be installed on Pupukea Road

Jade Eckardt

NORTH SHORE—Pupukea Road on the North Shore will be undergoing work this winter when the City and County of Honolulu begins the Pupukea Rock Fall Mitigation Project later this year. A net-like drapery will be installed over the loose rocks that line the road as a rocky wall, and a fence will be installed to prevent larger boulders from falling onto the steep and winding road, and further down into the residential area below.

“The project will take place past the hair pin turn if you’re going up. It doesn’t go past that section,” said Antya Miller of the North Shore Chamber of Commerce.

One lane will be closed to traffic during construction, which is set to begin during the busiest time of year for North Shore traffic. However, the construction will begin, “Around the end of this year or beginning of next year,” which is the tail end of the busy surf season.

The North Shore Neighborhood Board has called the plan a “proactive approach to protect travelers” along the dangerous road which is the only access to the large Pupukea resdidential neighborhood.

Vegetation is expected to grow over the netting, eventually hiding the netting itself and providing protection at the same time.

“It’s good that they’re doing it,” said Katie Marone who lives below the road. “The traffic will be inconvenient for the time but it’s dangerous. The road has rocks, that curve, and steepness working with it. We hear people honking all day long as they go around that turn.”

Taking precaution with the blind turn on the road, drivers currently honk their horns for extended periods of time to warn drivers on the other side of the turn.

The City accepted McGraw-Hill Construction’s bid at approximately $1,464,000. The project is expected to be completed in four to five months.

Archaeologists have studied the area to prevent any issues with cultural sites, but the project isn’t expected to encroach on any Hawaiian archaeological sites. Miller said that because the project doesn’t reach the heiau, she believes that the only archaeological site found was one burial.

“They found just one cave and they recommended just closing it up,” Miller explained.

North Shore residents are happy with the preventative measure and remember the outcome of a rockfall on Kamehameha Highway near Waimea Bay in 2000. Rocks fell onto the only road going through the North Shore, resulting in commuters driving through the beach itself for three months.

“If this net could prevent something like the Waimea situation, it can only be a good thing,” Marone said.