FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                      May 15, 2006

WARNING SIGNS GOING UP ON TANTALUS, ROUND TOP

            City crews will be installing 23 additional warning signs on Round Top and Tantalus drives because of the continuing closure of Round Top Drive since March.

            The signs will give warnings such as “Road closed” and “Local traffic only.” Additional barriers are also being installed to seal off the closed stretch of road. Because of the traction problems posed by the granular soil, the road is closed to motor vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians.

            Several earthslides from the adjacent hillside occurred in that spot during the heavy rains that flood many portions of Oahu in February and March. City Facility Maintenance crews responded to slides in that stretch of Round Top Drive, above Maunalaha Road, seven times in March, and removed more than 800 tons of soil from the road. More soil and plant debris slid onto the road since then from the state-owned hillside. Portions of the roadbed have been undermined by other slides. 

            The section of closed road begins after Aina Lani Way and includes the next hairpin turn. It remains closed indefinitely. The City cannot begin repairs to the road until the state figures out how to stabilize its hillside.

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Contact:

Bill Brennan, 527-6928

Mark Matsunaga, 527-5767