It took two years and plenty of community complaints, but a $1.3 million beautification landscaping project gone awry along Salt Lake Boulevard finally looks less like an eyesore.

About a week ago, inmates pulled weeds and cleared dead vines from the project, said Dana Takahara-Dias, City Parks and Recreation Department deputy director. A new contractor started Oct. 1.

"It's like day and night," said Grant Tanimoto, chairman of the Salt Lake Neighborhood Board. "I was really surprised."

The beautification work came out of a vision team project under former Mayor Jeremy Harris. It was completed in 2002. Then, in 2004, irrigation problems left plants without water for months.

A contractor was responsible for the upkeep of the landscape, but residents complained little was being done to keep the project green. The contractor countered there was no way to keep the plants alive without an improved sprinkler system. The current system cost $230,000.

Residents had asked for the project in hopes of combating graffiti on three large concrete walls along Salt Lake Boulevard. Tanimoto said graffiti returned when the vines and plants were allowed to die.

Takahara-Dias, in an e-mail to Tanimoto, said the project looks 100 percent better since the inmates cleared it and a new contractor took over.

The long-term fix will be to reinstall sprinklers along the boulevard. Eugene Lee, director of the city Department of Design and Construction, said the original sprinklers did not do the job.

"Instead of an underground drip irrigation system, in retrospect perhaps, an above-ground pop-up sprinkler head ... would have been more operable," Lee said in a September letter to Tanimoto. It will cost about $200,000 to reinstall a comparable sprinkler system.

A cheaper fix, Lee said, would be to install new lines on top of the wall and let water drip down. That project would cost about $20,000.

The city has not yet decided which sprinkler system it will choose.

Meanwhile, replacing dead vines along the wall is estimated to cost about $35,000, Lee said.

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.