LIHUE — Tire Warehouse Kauai is booked two weeks in advance on front-end alignment work because of potholes.
Roads on Kauai are littered with them, worsened by recent weeks of rainy weather, and drivers are lining up for new tires and alignments while county workers are putting in overtime to maintain roads.
“It has brought a lot of people into our warehouse lately,” said Tire Warehouse counter clerk Lorraine Wichman.
Car alignments can cost between $80 and $100, Wichman said.
The County of Kauai maintains about 300 miles of roads and 59 bridges, with a total of 60 workers in base yard crews in Hanapepe, Kapaa and Hanalei taking care of each district.
These workers are also responsible for roadside maintenance, mowing, tree-trimming, storm-drain and canal-clearing, filling potholes on the county right of way, as well as performing other tasks, said Mayor Derek S.K. Kawakami.
“Over the past three weeks, our Hanapepe base yard crew has been addressing the potholes on Koloa Road that have widened as a result of the ongoing severe weather,” he said.
Work isn’t finished for county road crews. Potholes still need to be filled in the Koloa area, as well as other places around Kauai.
Koloa resident Cal Santos said he appreciates the county employees who have worked through the storms to fix the potholes near his home.
“We as a community need to understand that there is a process to everything,” Santos said.
“Our county workers have been getting harassed on social media. It’s a shame that people nowadays think that they are entitled. Maybe those people should ask themselves what did they do today to make Kauai a better place instead of complaining.”
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Stephanie Shinno, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0424 or sshinno@thegardenisland.com.
