WAIKIKI, Hawaii (KHON2) — At Queens Beach in Waikiki, an eroding sidewalk that has been a growing hazard for pedestrians is finally set to be repaired after months of delay. What was once a popular pathway is a symbol of Oahu’s ongoing battle with coastal erosion and rising sea levels.
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The deterioration has been stark and alarming and it’s been a source of frustration for residents like Oren Schlieman, who walks the beach regularly.
“You could see it happening. You could see it corroding. And there was a complete lack of response by the city and by the state to try and solve the problem before it became a bigger, more costly problem,” said Schlieman.
Over the last five months, Barefoot Beach Cafe workers said they watched the disintegrating.
“One side eroded first, and then a month later, the other side collapsed, and it got pretty close to us, then it just caved in. Lucky, no one was hurt or on it at the time,” said Barefoot Beach Cafe worker, Eric Waltz. “We were worried when it got close enough, you know, to the lanai area. So we’re just lucky it didn’t go further.”
The city said it just received the permits needed from the US Army Corps of Engineers to do the repairs to the sidewalk and seawall. $1.6 million has been budgeted for the emergency work.
The basic repair of the walkway will begin with reconstructing the seawall and building a new concrete structure behind the wall to stabilize it. Once complete, the concrete walkway will be rebuilt.
According to a study by the US Geological Society and UH Manoa, 70% of Hawaii’s beaches and 60% of Oahu’s beaches are eroding. A long-term solution is what the city’s Resilience Office is grappling with right now.
The recently adopted Climate Adaptation Strategy calls for the city to look into the cost of relocating infrastructure versus repairing and maintaining, using something called Adaptation Pathways.
“You can develop trigger thresholds, points where a particular asset might need a new action, and you can plan backward from that. You can plot out the sequence of what needs to happen, even if the exact timing of when that needs to happen is uncertain because climate change is uncertain,” explained Alexander Yee, Coastal and Water Program Manager with the City’s Resilience Office.
“The timing of climate change is uncertain, but what it allows us to do is understand the sequence so that we can plan ahead with precisely the types of questions like, ‘what’s going to happen to this walkway?'” said Yee.
“So this is really the cutting edge that we’re trying to be on as far as planning tools. This is not something that we have done a lot of before in terms of Adaptation Pathway work. It’s not something that there’s a ton of precedence around the country for either. It is understood in planning communities, hey, this is a way to solve these problems, but it takes time and it takes practice to understand these things,” said Ben Sullivan, Executive Director and Chief Resilience Officer. “We’re at the place where we’re trying to incorporate this into our work, and it’s going to be an important tool going forward.”
Still, the work has support from others who see it as a temporary, but necessary fix.
“Wave splash will get worse and worse over the top of the seawall. But we’re talking about another two and a half decades. And it’s certainly worth the money and the time to continue to make that particular section of coast usable by the public,” said Dr. Chip Fletcher, Interim Dean at the UH School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.
The work is welcome news for many.
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“That’s great because I thought it would take a year or two to finally get them going,” said Waltz.
The city said they plan to start construction in early 2025 and expect it to be complete in about six months.
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