County to rebuild dirt road farther from Maui stream

Maui County officials are scheduled to start Tuesday to rebuild an eroded dirt road that has virtually stranded some 40 residents in a remote, rural area of East Maui.

County public works Director David Goode said he’s hoping to have the road open in about two weeks.

He said part of the work on the Hanawana Land Bridge, less than a quarter-mile makai of Hana Highway, will involve assessing the composition of the earth supporting the foundation.

The cost is estimated at $250,000, the county said.

"We’ll be having a soil engineer look at it to determine how best to build it up," Goode said.

Goode said the plan is to build the road farther away from the Hoalua Stream, where waters took away part of foundations during heavy rain.

The wall on the stream side of the road collapsed on March 9 after a deluge and fell down a steep slope that drops perhaps more than 100 feet, state Sen. J. Kalani English said.

English said the road, built more than 100 years ago, can no longer accommodate motor vehicles and has stranded residents who are unable to drive to work and go shopping in central Maui.

"A lot of them work in town," said English (D, East Maui-Lanai-Molokai).

Hanawana resident Keith Douglas said the residents are still able to walk across it and that some have relied upon friends on the other side to drive them to work.

He said others aren’t going to work until the road’s fixed.

"We’re hoping for the best," Douglas said.

English said the road is a government road but that after statehood, the state did not claim ownership and the county has not accepted it by ordinance.

"It’s a road in limbo," he said.

English said Mayor Alan Arakawa’s administration has decided to go ahead with fixing the road.

"We’ll worry about who pays for it later," English said.

English said he plans to help secure state money for the emergency repairs.