KILAUEA — A landslide, the fourth in three weeks on the North Shore, occurred on Kuhio Highway just south of the Kalihiwai Bridge about 5 p.m. Friday.
Both lanes were blocked while the debris was being cleared.
“State highways is on scene cleaning up the debris and will be opening the roadway shortly,” says a police dispatch.
“Shortly” turned into nearly 7 hours.
“Kuhio Highway at mile marker 25 (south of Kalihiwai Bridge) opened to two way traffic as of 11:43 p.m.,” Hawaii Department of Transportation said.
As of 8:15, traffic was being allowed through intermittently as cleanup continued.
As of 9:43, the crew reopened the contraflow and barrier work restarted.
But it was slow going.
“We’ve gone two miles in 2 hours. Maybe the contraflow should let more people through at a time,” wrote one HDOT Facebook commenter.
“Just got through! Originally was supposed to arrive back in Poipu by 8:30pm with including a 20 minute delay. Now will arrive by 11:30pm.,” posted another commenter at 10:35.
There were no reports of injuries.
The southbound lane at mile marker 25 was initially blocked and traffic was alternating and utilizing the northbound lane before block lanes were closed down.
“Road is open with no sign of any workers and no update on here or the county page. Weird. Still looks like a big mess though. More rain next week!” wrote Jeremy.
Heavy rains caused three other recent landslides on the North Shore.
There were two on Wainiha on Feb. 23 within a few hours of each other that took two full days to clear and prevented many residents from traveling to work.
Another one Thursday at mile marker 5 took a few hours to clear.
The Department of Transportation has been doing stabilization in the area since the first landslide.
