Access to Waipio Valley Road has been restricted since 2022 for work to make the steep, narrow and winding county road less dangerous.
Access to Waipio Valley Road has been restricted since 2022 for work to make the steep, narrow and winding county road less dangerous.
Almost three years later, Hawaii County Department of Public Works spokesperson Sherise Kana‘e-Kane said the project remains “in its preliminary design stages.”
“Gathering geological and topographic information has seen unexpected difficulties due to the terrain and unpredictable weather conditions,” Kana‘e-Kane said Thursday in an email. “We are currently exploring alternative methods for gathering this information.”
Mayor Kimo Alameda on Monday signed the 15th Waipio Valley Road Declaration of Emergency and related emergency rules due to ongoing safety concerns. The current declaration is in effect through March 6, the county said in a news release.
Alameda’s predecessor, former Mayor Mitch Roth, declared Waipio Valley Road an emergency on Feb. 25, 2022. The emergency rule closed the treacherous and poorly maintained road to all except valley residents after a geotechnical evaluation by the engineering firm Hart Crowser found an elevated risk of rockfalls.
The rule was relaxed in September that year — after a lawsuit by a community group — to permit Hawaii island residents and some commercial tour operators to travel the road with four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Pedestrians, horseback riders and uncovered vehicles, including but not limited to all-terrain vehicles, are still prohibited on the 1.4-mile road, which is the only way in and out of Waipio Valley.
