Road repair work planned at Kalepa Point in remote East Maui

Public comments are due Aug. 7 on a draft environmental assessment for an estimated $31.46 million road repair project at Kalepa Point in East Maui.

The Maui County Department of Public Works is proposing to protect the coastal roadway and make improvements to about 500 linear feet of rock rubble mound revetment and concrete rubble masonry. Expected to take 20 months to complete, the work will include a concrete retaining wall, 18,400 square feet of roadway repaving between the Kalepa and Alelele bridges and installation of new concrete guardrails. The roadway is about 25 feet above sea level.

Hurricane Iselle damaged the roadway on Aug. 7, 2014. Although the storm had weakened to a tropical storm, it nevertheless sent waves large enough to overtop and inundate the highway, causing considerable damage, including holes in the roadway.

The extensive wave damage “very likely” undermined the toe structure of the existing revetment, destabilizing the structure and leaving it at the mercy of gravity, according to the project’s environmental assessment. Repairing the structure to its former 1987 design would not comply with current highway building standards. The planned repairs include a hybrid of rock rubble mount revetment and a concrete retaining wall.

If the road were left unrepaired, there’s a high probability that erosion will take its course at Hana Highway will dead-end at Kalepa Point, the assessment says.

Public comments may be emails to kalepa@seaengineering.com. The project consultant is Sea Engineering Inc.