Anyone who has driven around Waimea Bay couldn't have helped but notice the massive chain-link fence with thick metal rings setting the eastern cliff off from the road. But manmade measures apparently cannot hold back the gods. A rockslide two days ago coursed through the fence and onto the narrow highway that has long been a bottleneck for the North Shore, largely due to rubbernecking as visitors and locals checked out big waves or the splendor of this spectacular, deep-water semi-circular bay that is home to one of the legendary big wave venues in Hawaii. The latest slide took place just to the upper left of this picture and will take months more to fix, so best advice -- go the Kailua route to the North Shore if you plan to get to Sunset Beach or Pipeline. Otherwise, if you don't plan going past the western half of the North Shore and Haleiwa and Waialua, roads should be fine. What this makes me wonder is, are any of these rock-slide protection projects really doing anything other than making drivers feel safer? And if you are planning to go to Waimea to go to the beach, you should check traffic first or go to one of the other beaches around the area, perhaps Kawela Bay near the Turtle Bay Hotel.

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Image via Flickr/RobK

—Alex, 04/10/07