Sea Level Rise: City's efforts to restore Waikiki Beach fall flat
By Ron Mizutani KHON NEWS
City crews armed with heavy equipment pushed tons of sand down from an area fronting the Waikiki police substation to the shoreline where concrete, rocks, and rebar were exposed.
The arrival of high tide Friday morning revealed how temporary it really was.
"I thought this was temporary and they might be wasting a lot of money doing this," Waikiki Beach regular Dewey Medeiros said.
State and city inspectors returned to Waikiki Beach Friday morning.
Critics say the city is wasting time and money. There's no word on how much this has cost taxpayers.
"We were against it. We thought they don't want to listen to us. Who better to listen to then to us people who've been here for many decades," Medeiros said.
Old-timers say the walls should never have been removed.
"Big swells all that never been affected when the jetty was here. Now they took it out. This is really temporary. As you can see, it's already exposed. We just going wait for couple more high tides and then let's waste some more money," Medeiros said.
So for now, the yellow tape has returned and beachgoers stare in disbelief.
"Since I've been here for the last 35 almost 40 years, never happened this thing. They blaming the high tide of seven, eight inches. I don't believe that," Waikiki Beach regular Nicola Maricic said.
"It's only a matter of time. It's flat out here. Wait until the waves get bigger. Even a big west swell going come right here," Medeiros said.
Wave watchers say a west swell is expected to arrive this weekend and it could be enough to wash away the sand, again.
Waikiki Beach erosion worsens
By Manolo Morales KHON NEWS
"Sometimes the sand would go out. It would come back, but we never saw this wall this long before," Waikiki beachgoer Corbin Peleiholani said.
Beach boys and regular beachgoers are in disbelief over what's happening to this particular stretch of Waikiki.
"I couldn't believe it [because] there's always been sand here and then you think about people who are not familiar with the area. Tourists that can easily just get knocked into it," beachgoer Bill Jackson said.
"There's some rebar sticking up, pieces of concrete that's just falling into the water. So it can be a hazard," Peleiholani said.
There is caution tape around the exposed area, but some people tend to ignore it.
People at the beach say much of the erosion happened just within the past couple of weeks.
"Every time it gets high tide, the sand will go out every time and then the next thing you know, the wall started to show up. It doesn't look too good," surf instructor Uini Niuelua said.
In April of last year, the state pumped in 24,000 cubic yards of sand from offshore to replenish and widen Waikiki Beach by about 37 feet. The $2.5 million project started from from the Duke Kahanamoku Statue at Kuhio Beach to past the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
During that time, workers also tore down two rock walls or groins that stretched out into the ocean. Those who know this beach well say taking those walls away might have caused the erosion to get worse.
"There was two walls and it would trap the sand. Sometimes this wall would get maybe exposed up to here, but it always got covered back, but it was never exposed for that length," Peleiholani said.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources says the walls were taken down because they were deteriorating and posed a safety hazard. People would climb on them and tend to slip and fall.
KHON2 asked the state if taking the walls down made it worse, but did not receive an immediate response.
The state emailed a statement saying it is working with the city to fix the problem.
