The city received seven bids from contractors to remove a portion of the median strip along Lunalilo Home Road — all substantially higher than the city's initial estimate.

The lowest bid received was $92,500 to reconstruct the roadway and remove a 20- to 30-foot section of the median on the north side of the intersection of Lunalilo Home Road and Kaumakani Street. Initially, the city estimated it would cost $30,000.

The prices came in higher than expected, Quintal said, because the project is more involved than just digging out the median and repaving the street.

The landscape median project, which was done over objections of the residents and the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board in 2004, cost about $1 million.

"It's $5,000 a square foot to remove this median. It's insane," said John Steinmiller a member of the neighborhood board. "For that price they should remove the entire median. The whole thing was wrong to begin with."

When the city put in the landscape median, area businesses complained that motorists could not enter their businesses without having to turn around or drive on a residential street a block away.

The tree-lined median, which runs from Kalaniana'ole Highway to Kalakua Street, allows for U-turns along its length, but not in front of the businesses demanding the proposed modification.

Affected by the median are the Hawai'i Kai Christian Church, the Hawaii National Bank, several offices and the Koko Marina 76 gas station.

The city, under the direction of then-Mayor Jeremy Harris, decided not to issue a change order at the time the median was being constructed and installed the median as planned.

Bids for the lopping-off project, which is expected to get under way next month, came in as high as $150,000, city Enterprise Services director Sid Quintal told members of the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board last week. The city has yet to select a bid, Quintal said.

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.