State transportation officials followed through Monday on their plans to erect concrete barriers to block vehicles from parking at one of the North Shore’s most popular beaches.
Meanwhile, some in the community are preparing to sue to have those barriers removed.
The Department of Transportation hopes the barriers, at Laniakea Beach, will ease the congestion snarling traffic for miles along Kamehameha Highway, a problem local drivers say has grown intolerable in recent years.
The work to install the barriers, however, slowed traffic to a crawl at best in both directions for hours Monday. Only one lane was available for vehicles, so police alternated the Haleiwa- and Pupukea-bound traffic, bringing one side and then the other to a dead stop.
Many motorists turned off their engines as they waited, starting them up again in unison at the first sign of movement.
The state agency calls the barriers "short-term" and "temporary" but acknowledges they could remain at the 1,000-foot beachfront stretch for years if they prove to be effective. For now, DOT says it will see how well the barriers work over the next month and then decide whether to keep them in place.
An estimated 600,000 people visit Laniakea each year. Most are tourists who arrive to marvel at Laniakea’s sea turtles — but local surfers and residents use the beach, too. The steady stream of pedestrians crossing the roadway creates safety hazards and slows traffic for miles in both directions.
Many in the community, including North Shore Neighborhood Board member Blake McElheny, have argued for months that the barriers would unfairly restrict beachgoers, who they say deserve a more practical solution.
"This is no small matter of losing the ability to surf for a month," McElheny said Monday. "It’s losing three acres of incredible real estate. This is families who enjoy themselves, people who fish."
The barriers would also create new safety hazards by forcing people to walk along the highway’s narrow shoulder to reach Laniakea, he said.
The city owns the land just mauka of the highway, and state and county officials say liability issues prevent a better fix.
Meanwhile a community group dubbed the Save Laniakea Coalition is moving forward with plans to sue to remove the barriers, according to its Honolulu-based attorney, Bill Saunders.
The group, which includes prominent surfers such as Keone Downing, Mark Cunningham, Reno Abellira and William Martin, will argue that officials should have obtained a special permit for the barriers because Laniakea is in the state’s protected coastal Special Management Area, Saunders said Monday. The group plans to file the suit by early next week.
On Thursday the Hawaii Tourism Authority sent out an email update to its partners on the barrier plan. It recommended they instead visit beaches with designated parking lots and restrooms on the makai side of the highway.
An earlier HTA study found about 1,000 people cross the highway daily in each direction at Laniakea.
The barriers come after years of discussion, study, community meetings and more than $1 million in state funding — but little action — to solve the Laniakea traffic and safety hazards. The Laniakea Task Force, a group formed in 2011 to study possible solutions, voted 12-7 against the barrier plan in September. A hui of North Shore community members demonstrated against the barriers at Laniakea earlier this month.
The Department of Transportation plans eventually to realign the highway at Laniakea, pushing the roadway farther mauka to address beach erosion issues — a project that would also solve the traffic and safety issues but would take years to complete.
The agency did not have an estimate Monday for how much the barriers cost. However, officials described it as regular maintenance work at a "nominal" cost.
