A mudslide on Tantalus Drive just northwest of Kala'i'opua Place closed the road to traffic for more than 10 hours yesterday, another of the weather-related mishaps that have frustrated area residents in recent years.

Police closed the road soon after the 4 a.m. mudslide. It was cleared by city crews in the morning, but state and city officials assessed the situation before fully reopening the road, said Keoki Miyamoto, the city's deputy director of facility maintenance.

A tree fell on the road on Dec. 26. That tree was removed, but officials worried about nearby trees that looked like they might fall in a storm, Miyamoto said.

Engineering and forestry personnel from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources assessed the mudslide area and may make recommendations to prevent further problems, said DLNR spokeswoman Laura Stevens.

The road was reopened at about 2:30 p.m., police Maj. Frank Fujii said.

Tantalus Drive is under the city's jurisdiction, while the mudslide and trees were on land managed by the DLNR.

In December 2007, the city reopened part of Round Top Drive that had been under repair since heavy rain damaged it in April 2006. The city, state and federal governments shared the $6 million cost.

Because yesterday's incident happened near the middle and highest point of the mountain, it likely affected fewer commuters.

Friends of Tantalus president Jim Shon, who lives near the mudslide on the Round Top Drive side, said he takes the Tantalus Drive side down the hill if he's headed west toward Downtown. He had to turn around yesterday but did not know why the road was closed until called by The Advertiser.

"It's getting kind of routine for something to happen," Shon said. While jogging on Christmas Day, he saw two six-foot tree limbs that had fallen onto utility wires, causing fires in two places and cutting power to some homes.

Shon said city crews have been much more responsive since the 2006 incident.

"They've been actually paying a lot of attention to us the last year, doing a lot of cutting of the vegetation along the sides so it doesn't reach out," Shon said. "So we don't have to go into the middle of the road to get past it."