LIHUE — Ahukini Landing has been reopened after a little more than a month and people can now once again walk out onto the pier. The landing was closed for repairs on Jan. 11 after staff members from the state’s
LIHUE — Ahukini Landing has been reopened after a little more than a month and people can now once again walk out onto the pier.
The landing was closed for repairs on Jan. 11 after staff members from the state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of State Parks found four weak spots in the boardwalk that needed to be replaced.
The pier is built with three beams that the deck planking affixes to, according to DLNR, and two beams needed to be replaced.
Weak spots in the handrails where they fasten to the pole beams were also identified in the DLNR inspection.
Schurch Construction Corp., a Lihue company, was contracted for the $8,400 project.
“Work has been satisfactorily completed and the pier was reopened on February 24,” said Deborah Ward, spokeswoman for DLNR.
The pier was built in 1920, along with a new breakwater at Ahukini, for transpacific Matson freighters and it was the first port on Kauai where interisland vessels could tie directly to shore. That same year, Ahukini Terminal & Railway Co. was created.
It operated a freight railroad that connected Ahukini with sugar plantations in Lihue, Kawaihau and Kilauea, as well as the Kapaa pineapple cannery.
Construction on Nawiliwili Harbor was completed in 1930 and at that time, interisland service to Ahukini stopped and freight began moving through Nawiliwili.
Matson modernized its fleet after World War II and the bigger ships moved over to Nawiliwili, leaving only tank barges to tie up at Ahukini Landing.
Ahukini closed as a port in 1950 and now the area is a popular fishing destination for locals.
