Anyone who journeys by vehicle to the end of the jetty in Nawiliwili Harbor along the deteriorating jetty road knows they take their paint jobs in their own hands, as saltwater and salt spray routinely breach the seawall.
That continuous condition, plus a gnarly winter storm, have prompted state Department of Transportation Harbors Division leaders to schedule repairs that will necessitate some closures of the road leading to a popular fishing spot at the end of the jetty, where Club Jetty once was located.
Originally, the road was to have closed today, and remain closed weekdays for six weeks, to allow workers from Nambu Construction to shore up the inner seawall, said Bob Crowell, DOT-Harbors Division Nawiliwili harbormaster.
Mother Nature altered those plans as high surf last weekend pounded forms and new cement contractors had poured in preliminary work to shore up the seawall, Crowell explained.
It is not known whether or not that cement work will hold because of the continual exposure to sea water, and that has pushed the work and scheduled road closure back some, he said.
State DOT-Harbors Division officials are working with the contractor to determine ways to accomplish the work and still allow some public access along the road, though there will be some periods when the road will have to be totally closed to members of the public, said Crowell.
The idea is “to keep closures down to a minimum,” Crowell said.
The work involves resetting some of the rock worked loose during a November storm, backing up those repairs with other rock work to strengthen the inner seawall, and making other repairs to shore up the deteriorating seawall, he added.
The road will have to be closed periodically, he said, as it will be used as a staging area for some of the rock and rock work.
Since the most severe damage, and hence the area of concentration for the work, is near the southern end of the jetty, there is the potential that the first part of the access road, possibly up to the first set of parking stalls, might remain open while the construction is going on, he explained.
An exact schedule of road closures could be worked out later this week.
Some people fishing at the south end of the jetty yesterday did not know of the planned road closure, and one who was fishing for palani, without success at least during part of the morning, said she would relocate to an area near the Nawiliwili Small Boat Harbor if she can’t use the jetty access road to get
