Fix It! Watch Your Step, You May Want To Cut This Corner
The city owns the sidewalk but a state agency is charged with fixing it in this location.
The current condition of the corner of Richards and South Hotel streets in downtown Honolulu is definitely not as planned.
Forced upward by the roots of a handsome monkeypod tree, the disfigured sidewalk crests at a crack about two inches higher than it should and slopes into the street. A smear of black asphalt testifies to an attempt to smooth things out. But things are not smooth.
The offending corner is in front of the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum, a stone’s throw from the Honolulu District Court building.
On a recent Monday, Gio Parks, who works in the area and walks by regularly, stopped to eye the corner. He gestured at his earbuds and the cellphone he had been glancing down at.
“If I’m not paying attention,” he said, “I’ve tripped over it before, a couple of times.”
He walked on with care.
Although there is a cutout from the sidewalk to the street, the corner would be tough to navigate for someone whose mobility was compromised, and perhaps impassable to someone in a wheelchair.
While the city owns the sidewalk, repairing it falls to the state’s Department of Accounting and General Services because it is responsible for the tree whose roots have busted it up.
The corner has been a problem in need of fixing for 18 months and the city cited the department in June for the damage, said Diane Ako, the department’s communications officer.
“The timeline to fix the sidewalk is perhaps six months,” Ako said. “A permit is needed to cut any tree in the Capitol District and the state’s tree vendor has already applied for a permit. Once it is approved, the department has to put the repair out for bid.”
Who Is Responsible
James Kurata, Department of Accounting and General Services Central Services Administrator. 808-831-6733 / centralservices@hawaii.gov
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