The banyan tree at the corner of South Kalaheo Avenue and Kailua Road was planted in 1954. For three years, it sat behind construction fencing while an $11 million drainage and traffic project tore up the intersection in front of it. On November 13, 2025, the city held a blessing ceremony under that same tree to mark the roundabout's completion, and the tree is still there, now the literal center of the design.
If you live in Kailua, you already know the roundabout is done. What's less obvious, unless you've actually walked it, is that the project changed more than traffic flow. It quietly merged three things that used to be separate car trips: the walk to Kalapawai Market, the drive to Kailua Beach Park, and the loop out to Lanikai. Those are now connected by a continuous shared-use path, which means the geography of a Kailua day looks different than it did in 2022, even if nobody sent out a memo about it.
Three Years, Nine Phases, One Very Patient Town
By around 2015, the intersection was still a plain two-way stop, and it was already backing up every time there was traffic or a beach day, according to DTS Engineering Division Chief Kelly Akasaki, who told KHON2 the community asked the city to do something about it. The city studied a roundabout as a pilot concept starting in 2018, then broke ground on major construction in November 2022.
What followed was nine numbered phases, each with its own detour. Phase 8 started January 8, 2025, and closed the Kaneohe-bound lane of Kalaheo Avenue exiting Lanikai, forcing drivers to detour through Kailua Beach Park, the same workaround used back in Phase 1. Phase 8 wrapped by mid-March 2025, letting traffic exit Lanikai via Kalaheo Avenue again, ending the beach park detour and reopening parking in the lot makai of Kalapawai Market. Phase 9 began right after, on April 23, 2025, closing South Kalaheo Avenue in both directions between Kailua Road and Kuukama Street and rerouting traffic through Kuulei Road, after crews discovered a waterline nobody had documented.
Tatumn Perreira, who works at Kalapawai Market and had a front-row view of all three years of construction, told the Star-Advertiser at the blessing that customers had been driving to the chain's other Kailua location just to avoid the mess. Not everyone felt the same relief. Kailua resident Douglas Eberhart told reporters that day:
"You never knew when it was going to happen, and so that was very frustrating for all the people because from one day it would be open, the next day it wouldn't. I'm glad it's done. But in reality, it's not done because the park where they kept all the equipment, that's not done yet."
That staging area, a patch of grass near the intersection, was still sitting unused as of the November ceremony. The roundabout itself, though, has been fully open to traffic since that day.
What the Roundabout Actually Fixed
The headline feature is the roundabout geometry itself, which DTS says reduces vehicle speeds and eliminates the high-speed right-angle and head-on collisions common at signalized intersections. Raised crosswalks and speed tables slow cars further at the crossings most used by beachgoers, kids, and older residents.
The less visible fix is drainage. DTS Director Roger Morton told reporters the intersection used to flood every time it rained hard, and that roughly half the total project cost went into stormwater work you'll never see: permeable pavement, trench drains, pre-treatment tanks, and rain gardens designed to filter runoff before it reaches Kailua Bay. Deputy Director Jon Nouchi framed the whole project less as pavement and more as a livability investment for the neighborhood, a framing that lands differently once you've watched the intersection go from a flood-prone stop sign to a landscaped circle with a 71-year-old banyan tree at its center.
Star-Advertiser's reporting on the project quoted one member of the construction team calling it the busiest roundabout on the island. That context matters: this wasn't a quiet residential intersection getting a facelift. It's the main pinch point for anyone moving between Kailua Town, Kailua Beach Park, and the Lanikai loop, which is exactly why the fix took three years and nine phases to get right.
The Walk That Didn't Exist Before
Here's the part that changes daily behavior rather than just commute time. The project added new sidewalks and a shared-use path connecting Kailua Town, Kalaheo Avenue, and Kailua Beach Park into one continuous route. Before this, getting from downtown Kailua to the beach park on foot or bike meant navigating a stop-sign intersection with no dedicated crossing infrastructure. Most people just drove the half mile.
That half mile now reads as a walk, not a drive. Kalapawai Market has run its original Kailua Beach location, right at the entrance to Kailua Beach Park, since 1932, and its Kailua Town location a short distance up the road. Those two storefronts sit on opposite ends of the new path. Add Over Easy on Kuulei Road for the Kailua Pig Eggs Benedict crowd, Island Snow on Kailua Road for shave ice, and Maui Mike's fire-roasted chicken further down the same street, and what used to be three separate car errands, coffee in town, lunch near the beach, a stop at the market on the way home, now functions as one loop on foot or bike.
If you want to stretch that loop further, Kawainui Marsh sits just inland, Hawaii's largest remaining wetland and a designated Ramsar site, and it's now reachable from the same connected path system rather than requiring a separate car trip to a separate trailhead.
The Calendar That Now Runs Through It
Kailua's weekly rhythm hasn't changed, but the roundabout means more of it is walkable from a single parking spot instead of requiring you to drive between stops.
- Thursdays, 4 to 7 p.m., the Hawaii Farm Bureau's Kailua Farmers' Market sets up at Kailua Town Center, 609 Kailua Road. It's been running for two decades, half the stalls outdoors and half under the parking garage, and at 7 p.m. sharp an alarm sounds and the whole market packs up within minutes.
- The second Saturday of each month, 4 to 5:30 p.m., a free music series takes over the Kailua parking garage behind Longs and CVS. September's lineup features Rickey Kamai.
- Sundays, 8 a.m. to noon, a second market runs at Pali Lanes in the heart of downtown Kailua, under the monkeypod trees.
- Tuesdays, Ko'olau Distillery runs its taco night, tacos and cocktails on a weekday that used to be quiet.
None of these events moved because of the roundabout. What moved is how easy it is to string two or three of them together on foot in a single evening, market to dinner to a drive home, without circling back to a car parked three blocks away.
What Hasn't Settled Yet
One piece of the puzzle is still in motion. The city has floated a plan to ban parking on both Aʻalapapa Drive and Mokulua Drive, the one-way loop through Lanikai, and their cross streets, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. That would target the cars that currently line those residential streets for Lanikai Pillbox Trail hikers and beachgoers. As of late summer 2026, no official start date has been confirmed, so if you've adjusted your Lanikai routine around today's parking reality, expect one more round of adjustment before this settles for good.
For now, the roundabout is the finished piece. The rest of Kailua's traffic story, Lanikai parking included, is still being written one phase at a time, the way most of this town's infrastructure seems to get built.
If you're weighing what any of this means for a home search on the windward side, or you just want a local's read on how a neighborhood like this actually lives day to day, Golden Pineapple Group is happy to talk it through. Let's Connect.
