Over a period of years, a Palolo Valley neighborhood reportedly suffered a slow but inexorable underground landslide that caused its roads to buckle, its hills to erode, its houses to slide, its waterlines to break and burst, and its retaining walls to crack and crash into neighboring properties.
It got so bad that many residents living along the steep incline of the Kuahea Street area could neither enter nor live in their single-family homes again.
But following a $24 million effort, the city announced last week that the area around that once undrivable street on the eastern slopes of the valley has returned to some normalcy.
That section — between Kuahea and Helo places — will reopen to motorists today, the city says.
“To protect the public and supporting infrastructure along portions of Kuahea Street and Waiomao Road the city initiated stabilization work for the area in 2019,” a city statement reads. “The city is currently scheduled to complete the overall stabilization efforts by the end of 2023.”
Under the Kuahea Street Area Stabilization Project, the work included installation of underground tieback anchors and a soldier pile wall system within city-acquired properties to mitigate earth movement in the area. Following completion of the work, the city says it will continue to monitor earth movement, perform repairs to city infrastructure and maintain vegetation growth as needed.
“The city would like to thank the Kuahea Street/Waiomao Road neighborhood and surrounding Palolo Valley community for their patience during this important project,” said city Design and Construction Director Haku Milles in a written statement. “We also want to thank City Council member Calvin Say for his support and help providing construction updates to the community and Palolo residents.”
But for some the city’s purported fixes were too little, too late. And many neighbors in the Kuahea Street area would file lawsuits against the city, claiming outright negligence.
Among them, local attorney Michael Glenn, a resident of nearby Kuahea Place, said he still cannot return to the hillside home he purchased in 2000, due to the landslides.
“My yard moved 10 feet down and about 10 feet over, and everyone else’s did, too,” Glenn told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser by phone. “I abandoned my property back when it was condemned, along with all of the others because of the landslide. Everyone’s houses were basically unlivable due to the mass erosion of the hillside. … It took away people’s foundations right from under their homes.”
Due to the sliding land, he said, “the city bought up all my neighbor’s (homes) and tore them down.” But he added that the city was not interested in purchasing his property — or those of his adjacent neighbors on Kuahea Place — as those lots were apparently not needed to stabilize the still sliding hillside.
He added that roughly seven properties were purchased by the city — most of which were formerly on Kuahea Street.
“They’ve all been razed,” he said of the vanished homes, which are now vacant, grassy lots. “Everywhere where there’s not a house is where there used to be one.”
In 2018, Glenn sued the city — including the Board of Water Supply — for failing to fix issues that led to the property damage at his home.
Due to that damage, Glenn’s lawsuit asserts he suffered “from a loss of enjoyment of the full value of the real property” on Kuahea Place.
Moreover, Glenn’s lawsuit asserted the city failed “to timely address the deterioration and malfunction of the property under their control” and failed to perform its “duty to properly and safely maintain the waterworks sewage and drainage system” on Kuahea Place.
“Defendants failures have directly caused the property under their control to deteriorate so profusely that water main breaks
have become the norm (and only accelerate and worsen the condition), landslides and soil erosion/depletion, deep-ground movement, topsoil depletion, topsoil sliding, foundation erosion and destabilization, retaining and support wall destruction, earth movement, road buckling, and more have been readily observable for the past few years,” Glenn’s lawsuit stated. “The condition of Kuahea Street and Kuahea Place is patently unsafe and the area is currently undergoing complete reconstruction by the defendants.”
According to the city’s Real Property Assessment Division’s website, Glenn’s 5,500-square-foot property in 2014, prior to the noticed earth movement, was valued at $561,600. In 2023 the city valued the same property at $456,900 — an over 18% decrease.
Other nearby residents also sued the city and BWS, which was noted in Glenn’s lawsuit. In one case, the city allegedly agreed to settle with property owners on Kuahea Street for $775,000, while nearby homeowners who’d also filed suit allegedly settled with the city for $635,000.
“There’s about six others who have outstanding claims,” Glenn told the Star-Advertiser. “And we all tried to do mediation, tried to get some type of resolution without trials, but it didn’t work.”
He added that his case against the city lingered for years, until a settlement agreement was reached. “I decided to take whatever money they give me to end the case, because I just wanted to rebuild, I didn’t want to wait,” Glenn said.
In April the Honolulu City Council publicly voted to adopt a proposed $8,000 settlement with regard to Glenn’s civil lawsuit.
This week the city did not immediately respond to questions over money settlements with Glenn or his neighbors, and it did not immediately respond to questions related to landslide issues in Palolo Valley or other hillside neighborhoods around Oahu.
Meanwhile, the city says it is planning for a separate project involving the installation of a new waterline and reconstruction of concrete pavement along Kuahea Street, from Helo Place to Waiomao Road.
Currently in the design phase, the next project will require relocation of utilities and reconstruction of a portion of Waiomao Road that is affected by ongoing earth movements, the city says.
