Sewer line repairs along Kalaniana'ole Highway are ramping up this week as the city begins a $9.2 million project to rehabilitate 9,100 feet of pipe from Niu Valley to Wailupe Beach Park and along Kāhala Beach to the Kahala Hotel and Resort.

Traffic will eventually be affected by the work but not any time soon, said Markus Owens, spokesman for the city Department of Environmental Services.

"The first part of this is power washing and cleaning the lines from the beach park to the hotel," Owens said, adding that traffic lanes will most likely be closed when the construction company, Insituform Technologies Inc., installs cured-in-place pipe lining and that the closure will begin at night.

For now, work is taking place from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Once the cleaning is done, rehabilitation of the lines can begin and that will require makai lane closures and bypass of the wastewater, he said.

The cured-in-place pipe work will start at night and last until about 3 p.m. the next day, Owens said.

The Kuli'ou'ou-Kalani Iki Neighborhood Board had requested that the work be done at night, said Robert Chuck, board chairman.

"They will not start until 8 p.m.," Chuck said. "We're happy for that because then the coming-home traffic will be gone by that time. So we're quite satisfied that it's going to be little interruption of the traffic for us."

Chuck said the sewer lines in East Honolulu have been under repair for a long time, with the work from Niu Valley to 'Āina Haina wrapping up not long ago.

The projects disrupt the commute somewhat, but that is preferable to the kind of pipe rupture that Waikīkī experienced in March 2006. That incident resulted in 50 million gallons of wastewater pouring into the Ala Wai Canal and triggered more than $45 million in repairs and replacements, he said.

Lining the old pipes with plastic avoids costly trenching construction that is much more disruptive, he said, adding that the end product is just as efficient even though the lining will reduce the size of the pipes.

"Because the new lining is smooth, it is not cutting down on the capacity of the pipes to take the sewage," Chuck said.

The Kalaniana'ole Highway project calls for rehabilitation of approximately 7,400 feet of 24-inch and 30-inch pipes and 1,700 feet of 8-inch and 10-inch pipes; liner installation in 19 manholes and at the Wailupe Stream inverted siphon to improve flushing action; replacement of 28 sewer manhole cones/frames and covers; and cleaning of 11,800 feet of pipe.

"These projects are constructed with the money that is collected in sewer fees," said Mayor Mufi Hannemann in a press release. "We will continue to devote our resources to improving our overall island infrastructure with projects like this."