Officials, lawmakers grapple with eroding Kamehameha Highway in Windward Oahu

Eugene Kaneshiro lives by the ocean near Kaaawa with a gorgeous view of the Koolauloa coast and a commute that will take your breath away.

But life isn’t quite so idyllic right now for Kaneshiro and his Windward Coast neighbors as emergency repairs continue on the area’s lifeline Kamehameha Highway, causing daily traffic jams and rush-hour delays that can stretch for more than an hour.

“It’s a pain in the butt,” he said of the contraflow lane closings. “I can’t go anywhere. Just going to the post office is hard.”

It’s a growing problem for Kaneshiro and his neighbors. Emergency repairs are becoming increasingly necessary as climate change-driven sea level rise and erosion plague the 10-mile shoreline from Hauula to Kaaawa and undermine a highway that is now precariously close to the ocean’s edge.

Residents say the situation has been a problem for at least 15 years. More recently, the state Department of Transportation has been forced into making emergency repairs two years in a row.

The current repair job near Kaaawa is expected to last another week , and officials said it’s possible additional emergency repairs may be necessary if any other sections of the highway are found to be especially vulnerable.

The price tag for this year’s emergency repairs so far: between $3 million and $4 million.

Ed Sniffen, DOT deputy director for the Highways Division, said he knows area residents and commuters are frustrated but the department is working on the problem.

A resiliency study, he said, is in the works to look at the highway’s weak points, its vulnerabilities and its stressors, including sea level rise, shoreline erosion and rock falls. The $250,000 study, expected to be completed by July, also will examine how to address the problems going forward.

Sniffen said current trends in sea level rise mean that 20% of Hawaii’s roads will be inundated by the end of the century, which means those roads will either have to be relocated or elevated if continuity is to be maintained. The estimated cost for all of that is $15 billion, he said.

“Even if we had the $15 billion, we don’t know if we should put all of our resources into moving things right away because it all depends on where people are going to live and work in the future,” he said.

“I’ve said this before, Kamehameha Highway was built so that we connect all the communities. But if that roadway is going to be inundated, what makes us think the communities right off the road won’t be? We need to know, from the highway’s perspective, first, will the community still be there? And if it is, we’ve got to find ways to connect it,” he said.

Options for the Koolauloa coast, he said, might range from moving the road further mauka to perhaps offering a ferry service along the coast.

Sniffen said the resiliency study is only the first step in what has to be a more comprehensive process to examine related issues beyond the transportation infrastructure.

The state Legislature is now looking at a proposed Office of Planning study of the Hauula area that would look at mid-term and long-term solutions requiring land use planning to address economic, social, public health and environmental considerations.

House Bill 2207, which would underwrite an estimated $250,000 study, so far has been approved by three House committees and awaits further scrutiny by lawmakers this year.

“Our resiliency study is DOT-centric but our improvements as we go forward have to be state-centric. It has to be good for the state, not just for transportation,” Sniffen said.

Climate scientists are projecting more than 3 feet of sea level rise over the next 80 years. But they say rising oceans are already causing periodic flooding and other impacts on coastal properties.

And while the highway from Hauula to Kaaawa isn’t the only stretch of Hawaii roadway under attack by the sea, it’s probably the most vulnerable.

The Statewide Coastal Highway Program Report, prepared by University of Hawaii engineers for DOT in 2018 and updated in August, noted that five of the top 10 most critical road priorities are sections of the Kamehameha Highway on the Koolauloa coast.

State Rep. Sean Quinlan, a Democrat who represents Hauula and Kaaawa, submitted a bill this session calling on DOT to create a strategic plan by 2021, replenish the beaches next to the highway by 2022 and reinforce the highway by 2024.

“This has been an ongoing problem for the past dec­ade,” Quinlan wrote on his Facebook page in January. “It’s about time that long term solutions need to be created rather than emergency repairs at this point.”

State Sen. Gil Riviere (D, Heeia-Laie-Waialua) agreed.

“I don’t think we should be paralyzed by analysis and future planning efforts. Rather than try to get consensus for a 50- or 100-year plan, maybe we should start talking about a 10- or 20-year plan to reduce the cost of emergency repairs and ensure continuing viability of the existing highway,” he said.

Riviere said it is easy to talk about managed retreat from the shore and highway relocation.

“But it is much more difficult to define what that means when we look at actual costs, actions and societal consequences,” he said. “So, all we ever see are reactionary repairs.”

Sniffen said he’s confident the repairs being made right now will last for five years and even 10 with proper maintenance.

They are essential for now but going forward officials have much to consider in the next few years.

“We’ve got to look at it from an entire state perspective,” he said.

Toward that end, Sniffen said he was planning to meet with Land Board Chairwoman Suzanne Case to inspect the shore along the highway. He said he’s hoping the two agencies can align behind common goals and partner to save both beaches and highways, whether it involves constructing groins or replenishing sand or whatever else might work to preserve both resources.

“If I went to protect our road but forgot about the beaches, forgot about the resources that make Hawaii Hawaii, in the end we might have connectivity, but who would want to come to Hawaii anymore, to visit as a tourist, if we don’t have any beaches?” Sniffen said.

Waikane Store is on Kamehameha Highway six miles south of the ongoing road repairs. But the daily traffic jams are still having a negative affect on the family-run general store.

“Everyone is in a rush,” said the store’s Alden Tokuzato. “There’s no time to stop.”