Accessibility work at Richardson Ocean Park in Hilo will be completed by the end of summer.
Since June 2022, the Hawaii County Department of Parks and Recreation has closed various parts of the popular Keaukaha beach park in order to improve access to the beach and comply with standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act, including installing a concrete walkway to the beach and renovations to the parking lot and comfort stations.
That work is finally wrapping up, and Parks and Recreation Director Maurice Messina said it should be completed by mid-September.
“The parking lot is open now, and we’ll be opening the bathrooms in the next few weeks pending a final inspection,” Messina said. “All of the outside areas should be open in a couple weeks.”
Messina said the department is still waiting on some final touches to the park comfort stations, such as new painting and window replacements, but reiterated that the county’s work within the park should be finished within a few months.
But even after a year of work — and an estimated price tag of $3.9 million — more accessibility improvements in the park may be needed.
Resident Dan Knowlton said he intends to pressure the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to make further changes so that people can more easily access the ocean itself.
“We’ve done all this work, spent all this money, but it only covers ADA access to the beach, not to the water’s edge,” Knowlton said. “So, the whole project is of no use — it’s all basically wasted.”
Messina said that Parks and Recreation’s authority doesn’t extend below the high water mark, and that any improvements below that point are the jurisdiction of DLNR.
Knowlton said that a simple railing would allow people with limited mobility to easily enter the ocean at Richardson and was optimistic that the DLNR would be receptive to such a project.
But regardless of whether that happens, the county’s work at Richardson and other parks is nearly over.
Messina said ADA projects at several other parks around the island are wrapping up, including work at Kolekole Gulch Park in Hamakua.
That beleaguered park has been intermittently closed since 2017, first because soil in the park was found to have been contaminated by lead paint from the overpassing Kolekole Bridge, and again in 2022 for park renovations and state Department of Transportation bridge repairs.
Messina said that paving work at the Kolekole parking lot should begin by the end of the month, and contractors should be able to connect municipal waterlines to the park by the end of September, which he said will significantly improve the quality of the site.
However, while access to the ocean through Kolekole remains open, sections of the park containing lead-contaminated soil remain cordoned off, pending a DOT soil remediation project that is estimated to begin in spring of 2024. Because the contaminants originate from DOT infrastructure, it remains DOT’s responsibility to remove them.
Meanwhile, other ADA projects at county parks in Papa‘aloa, Pa‘auilo and Na‘alehu also are wrapping up, Messina said, with additional projects at Kahuku Park and the Pahala Park Swimming Pool estimated to end by July and before the start of the school year, respectively.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.