Public Access to Expand on Kūhiō Highway by Hanalei Hill

Public access will expand for Kūhiō Highway at Hanalei Hill starting Sept. 4, state officials announced Friday afternoon.

Since March, Route 560 was limited to single-lane access after a landslide covered the roadway. The Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation has spent the past few months working to stabilize the hillside.

The work has consisted of clearing dirt and debris, drilling and grouting more than 500 soil nails into the hillside for greater stability, and performing road resurfacing work below the slope. The final tasks of this phase include concrete and drainage preparations on the 19th-century water tunnel located mid-slope.

Additional slope stabilization work is expected to start early January 2022.

“The increase in access marks the wind-down of the emergency phase of construction, which is anticipated to be completed by the end of September or early October, weather permitting,” HDOT stated in a press release Friday.

The updated public access is as follows:

Monday through Saturday, two lanes will be open, one in each direction, from midnight to 6:59 a.m.

From 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., there will be single-lane alternating traffic guided by a pilot vehicle. Two lanes will open after 5:31 p.m.

Single lane alternating traffic (guided by pilot vehicle) between 7 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.
Two lanes open (one in each direction) after 5:31 p.m.

On Sunday and state holidays, two lanes, one in each direction, will be open all day.

The access schedule up to 5:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 4 will be as posted here.

HDOT will continue to post updates on the Hanalei Hill landslide project here.