Motorists planning to travel on Kalaniana‘ole Highway Monday night may need to reconsider their routes. The Hawai‘i Department of Transportation (HDOT) has announced a full closure of the highway between Lunalilo Home Road and Kealahou Street from 8 p.m. Monday to 5 a.m. Tuesday. According to HDOT, the closure is necessary to ensure the safety of highway users and to facilitate the removal of approximately 100 cubic yards of unstable material threatening the roadway from above.
Electronic signage has already been placed in key locations to alert the public to the upcoming closure. These advisories also include notice that the Lānaʻi Lookout and the Hālona Lookout will be inaccessible during the duration of the night work. Such preemptive messaging aims to minimize the inconvenience for those who frequent these areas for their nightly solace or for peering into the dark expanse of the Pacific.
For those needing to navigate around the closure, there is a designated detour. Traffic will be rerouted using Kealahou Street, Hawai‘i Kai Drive, and Lunalilo Home Road, a path that skirts the closure area and reconnects to the highway past the work zone. HDOT is tasked with not merely maintaining the asphalt under our wheels but ensuring the reliability of a pathway that, for some, is the only tie to the rest of the island.
