Koko Crater summit safety project delayed after objections to removal of platform at the top

The city has decided to postpone a safety improvement project at Koko Crater summit after concerns were raised about the removal of the grated metal platform at the top.

The $439,000 project would have closed the summit — and the wooden tramway tracks that hikers climb to reach it from Koko Head Regional Park. The work had been scheduled from Monday to the end of July, coming on the heels of the popular hike reopening to the public with the easing of restrictions from the coronavirus pandemic.

The work related to the planned closure was to address safety concerns about crumbling World War II-era structures at the summit. The structures were built by the U.S. military in 1942 and served as a radar station, which was returned to the city upon deactivation in 1966.

Currently, no closures are scheduled, according to the city Department of Parks and Recreation.

Members of the Kokonut Koalition, a nonprofit group working with the city to improve the tramway tracks known to most as Koko Crater Stairs, had expressed concerns about removing the “iconic radar platform” altogether as part of the project.

In addition to being part of the history of the area, the platform’s removal would drastically change hikers’ experience because they would no longer be rewarded with 360-degree views upon reaching the summit.

“If that platform was gone, you wouldn’t be able to see — it would be all trees,” said Kokonut Koalition President David Nixon. “It’s about 6 feet off the ground and gives you elevation over the trees and bushes. It would not be a comparable experience. People have been standing on that platform for decades upon decades.”

In a letter to its members on Tuesday, the Kokonut Koalition — made up of avid hikers who regularly climb up the tracks — said that “we wholeheartedly agree that this structure is part of the history of Koholepelepe and what makes climbing the tramway rewarding.”

The platform, however, does need repairs, Nixon acknowledged.

Parks officials said the installation has “degraded severely.” The planned project sought to remove debris from tunnels and shafts as well as to seal the shafts, vents and tunnels, and to remove the “deteriorated steel decking and framing.”

For those who currently climb to the summit, the grated metal of the platform appears rusty in some areas, and it has partially collapsed in other areas.

On Wednesday the city Department of Parks and Recreation said, “The previously announced project atop Koko Crater … will be suspended while the city continues to work with the community on a path forward that will incorporate temporary improvements to the tramway.”

Members of the Kokonut Koalition thanked city leaders for listening.

The work was not expected to include improvements to the tramway track, a project still in the early planning stages.

A City Council resolution late last year allotted $100,000 for immediate repairs to the wood ties of the track, which have suffered from erosion and wear and tear by hundreds of hikers a day.

The $100,000 is part of $1 million the city set aside in its budget to address maintenance and repairs to Koko Crater Stairs, popular with visitors and residents alike.

Nixon, a public-policy professor who conducted a study last year on who hikes the stairs, found that roughly half are visitors, and half are residents from throughout Oahu.

He said the Kokonut Koa­lition has been working on a plan to repair the tracks, both immediate and long-term, and continues to move forward on it.