The city says demolition of the more than 3,900 steps leading to the top of the Koolau Range, above Haiku Valley and the H-3 freeway, will begin at the end of April.

The Nakoa Cos. is the city’s contractor to do the nearly $2.6 million removal of the World War II-era Haiku Stairs.

The Kapolei company says it will use one Hughes 500D helicopter and roughly a half-dozen ground workers — each of whom will be roped and harnessed as they maneuver themselves along a sheer, 2,400-foot-high ridgeline — to remove 664 stair modules from the mountain.

Each module they remove consists of seven, 7-foot-long connected steel steps, which are all currently bolted into the rocky, north-facing ridge.

The work to demolish the staircase — long known by visitors and locals alike as the Stairway to Heaven, with its spectacular views and unique mountain hiking experience — is expected to take up to six months to complete, weather permitting, the city says.

“First and foremost this was a decision that when we came into office that we knew was hanging out there,” Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said during a Wednesday news conference at Kaneohe District Park. “This decision was long overdue to be made.”

The mayor noted demo­lishing the Haiku Stairs involved public safety concerns, city liability costs, trespassing and other neighborhood disturbances to nearby residents.

Many of those in Haiku Valley had complained about traffic, lack of parking in their own neighborhoods and even crime as outside visitors attempted to gain access to the popular Haiku Stairs.

To demolish the staircase, the now-defunct Coast Guard Omega Station — once one of only eight radio-navigation sites in the world used by the U.S. military — will now be used as the ground-based staging site to dump the removed steel stairs.

In addition to Wednesday’s announcement, a small private blessing ceremony was performed by Kawaikapu Frank Hewett near the base of the Haiku Stairs, ahead of the work.

“That blessing ceremony truly was a somber event whose purpose was to bless The Nakoa Cos. employees, the workers, who are going to be involved in that project,” Ian Scheuring, the mayor’s deputy communications director, told reporters at the district park. “Far from a celebration, in the interest of making sure this project gets off on the right foot, it was important to The Nakoa Cos. and to the city to have that blessing ceremony.”

City Council Vice Chair Esther Kia‘aina – whose Windward Oahu district includes Kaneohe – also asserted the time to remove the Haiku Stairs was at hand.

“For my own blessing, I also blessed the Honolulu Police Department as well as the Honolulu Fire Department who on a day-to-day basis are dealing with festering issues that have been around for decades,” she told reporters. “And as far as I’m concerned, when people keep on saying that there has not been a single fatality (on the Haiku Stairs) in rescues, my question to everybody is ‘at what cost?’”

She said “every single time that HFD goes up there to rescue thrill-seekers who are up there for their own personal happiness, as far as I’m concerned, today’s new chapter is to address long-festering issues.”

She added “I’m hoping that this new chapter in Haiku Valley will provide healing for all parties.”

“As the mayor said, this was a very difficult, difficult decision. It is not a day of celebration. But I have to tell you it is a day that I welcome because it is a closure of an issue that has been kicked down the road for decades, and as far as I’m concerned we have collectively made a decision for the good of the community,” Kia‘aina said.

“And so I know that there are going to be many people who are going to say that we are taking away something from them. This is a man-made contraption on a natural valley,” she said.

In 2022 the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation became the new steward of what for years was a legally accessible site but which has, of late, become restricted property.

Demolition of the metal staircase — first built by the Navy as a wooden ladder system for communications equipment access in the 1940s and later replaced by metal stairs with railings — was to begin at the end of 2022.

On June 1, 2023, after a nearly monthlong request for bidders, the city opened just one bid for that demolition project — to be overseen by the city’s Department of Design and Construction — initially estimated at $1 million.

The Nakoa Cos. offered to do the work for $2.26 million. But in a June 29, 2023, letter, the city awarded Nakoa a contract for more than $2.34 million — about $80,000 above the company’s initial bid submission.

Under this contract, the firm must hire and take direction from a biologist, who will evaluate each section of the stairs prior to and following removal in order to protect native species and prevent erosion. Likewise, the demolition company will also be responsible for “re-­vegetating” affected areas with native plant species where necessary, the city says.

At the news conference, Austin Nakoa, president of The Nakoa Cos., told reporters that demolishing the Haiku Stairs would be done “carefully.”

“It will be done by connecting the modules with slings and taking (the helicopter) and removing them one by one,” he said. “A congested area (flight plan) has been approved by the FAA.”

He added his company’s airborne loads of steel modules will not “cross traffic,” particularly over the H-3, but instead will be flown over the mountain ridge behind and above the H-3 tunnel.

“At no time will we cross over any residences or schools or the freeway,” said Nakoa. “We’ll be flying over the tunnel.”

He added his company will land its helicopter at the Omega Station, where modules “will be disseminated from that point on.”

Nakoa noted flight times over the Haiku Valley area will occur four to five hours a day, weather permitting.

As far as public notice, “the residents and the community have been notified of this work,” city DDC Director Haku Milles told reporters.

He added the city has had “internal discussion” with residents and another meeting with the nearby Ke Kula o’ Samuel Kamakau Laboratory Public Charter School at 46-500 Kuneki St. “to make sure that the kids know of the work that’s going to be going on.”

Meanwhile, the legal battle to save 4,000 feet of steel steps from Honolulu’s demolition project continues.

In February, the Friends of Haiku Stairs filed a notice of appeal in the Intermediate Court of Appeals to oppose 1st Circuit Judge John M. Tonaki’s December ruling granting a summary judgment on the city’s motion to dismiss the Friends’ lawsuit to block the removal of the Windward Oahu landmark.

Originally filed in August 2023, the Friends’ 50-page lawsuit contended the city had not updated or completed necessary environmental impact studies required to demolish the stairs, and had therefore violated basic Hawaii Environmental Protection Act rules.

This week, Sean Pager, the group’s president, confirmed its “appeal is pending,” with no other court action planned.

“We are considering other actions but would prefer not to comment on the specifics,” Pager said, adding the city’s removal of the Haiku Stairs is wholly unwarranted. “The Haiku Stairs are an important part of Hawaii’s heritage. Demolishing them is a senseless waste of taxpayer money and an act of vandalism that does not deserve a blessing.”