Residents of Council District 5 live in the area with the highest concentration of failed city roads — the worst of the worst — among Oahu’s nine council districts.

Nearly 40 lane-miles — comprising 12.1 percent of District 5’s total city lane-miles — were found to be failed under a road survey completed late last year. That 12.1 percent was by far the highest percentage of failed roads — the next closest were District 6, in which 5.4 percent of its share of city roads were failed, and District 4, in which 5 percent of its roads were failed.

Just more than 67 percent of District 5’s lane-miles were considered fair or better, putting the district near the bottom of the pack. Only Districts 4 and 9 had a smaller share of roads that were graded fair or better.

Islandwide, 72.2 percent of island roads were fair or better, while 27.8 were found to be poor or worse, based on last year’s survey. Perhaps a silver lining for District 5 residents is that construction is under way on many of the region’s failed roads, according to the city’s road-repaving schedule.

YOUR COMMENTS

Star-Advertiser readers sound off on island roads via Facebook, online story comments and emailed feedback:

"You CANNOT BE SERIOUS! Your series covers Kailua today (March 28) and the map shows Kailua Road where it turns into Wanaao Road as the best quality Good. Go ride a bike over this area.
The intersection where Kailua Road turns toward the ocean and the straight ahead section becomes Wanaao Road is the absolute worst intersection on Oahu. Kailua Road/Wanaao Roads approaching this intersection are in miserable condition as well.
This kind of grievous error clearly explains why the governments are so wasteful of our monies."
Jim Pollock

"Pali Hwy sucks. Try drive it with someone with chronic back pain. Between trying to avoid potholes and just the general patching it sucks! What ever happened to election year repairs?? That’s how it was when I was younger! Oops dating myself! Lol!"
Cheryl Medeiros

"Included in the assessment should be that if your back is not sore after riding over these roads it is considered a GOOD road."
Allenk

"Contributing to the lack of funds to maintain roads is the amount of sidewalk repair damage caused by the excessive amount of trees planted next to sidewalks. Every 5 years the sidewalks on Kaahumanu, Komo Mai, and Noelani Streets in Aiea are repaired due to root damage from trees. I’m sure this is paid for with funds from the road maintenance budgets. Trees are great but the city has planted a tree every 20-25 feet on these streets which is excessive."
Sunny

THE PAVEMENT CONDITION INDEX

To rate how badly damaged a road’s surface is many cities including Honolulu use a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-designed point system. Roads are scored between 0 and 100, 0 being the worst and 100 being the best. The score is calculated mainly using three criteria: the type(s) of damage, how severe the damage is, and how extensive it is.

Because it’s a score, there could be different types of damage seen in different categories. Here’s a general idea of what drivers can expect.

Click to enlarge the chart.

Click to enlarge the chart.

THE WORST ROADS IN DISTRICT 5

Some roads may have been repaired since the City and County of Honolulu conducted its survey in 2012. An asterisk (*) denotes city road segments that are not listed on the city’s repaving schedule. Many of those roads are still in the design phase and will go out to bid for construction within a year, officials say.