Sinkhole rips Kailua road

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BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Steel plates were used to form a temporary patch over a sinkhole that opened up Friday morning on Kailua Road between Oneawa Street and Hamakua Drive.

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BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM
City workers with the Department of Environmental Services worked to repair a wastewater pipe break in the sinkhole that can be seen in the foreground covered by steel plates.

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City crews were expected to start work Sunday to fill a sinkhole near the mauka entrance of Kailua town.

The sinkhole, which formed at about 12:30 a.m. Friday morning near the corner of Hamakua Drive and Kailua Road, was described as 20 feet long by 12 feet deep. What caused it had not been determined.

"It’s going to take some time," said Markus Owens, spokesman for Honolulu’s Department of Environmental Services.

The inbound lane into Kailua was closed through the day.

Owens said workers would need to repair a wastewater pipe break in the sinkhole. The work included bypassing the sewage break with a temporary above-ground line connected through manholes.

The city hired a private contractor to repave the affected stretch of roadway. Work is to start Sunday.

In January an 8-by-8-foot sinkhole formed on Makohilani Street between Keehuhiwa and Hokuliilii streets in Mililani.