It's a sight many have never quite gotten used to.
"It looks tore up, it looks like part industrial over here," says Pali resident Tyler Lienhard. "I ride my bike thru here everyday and it's kind of disappointing to ride thru this everyday."
An above ground sewage pipe that was promised would only be temporary is finally set to be removed.
"I think that wold be really good because right now it really smells," says Clayton Woo, Makiki resident.
"It's not very attractive where it is," says Georgia visitor Jim Pipen.
The City announced it will begin a $37-million wastewater tunneling project to bury this unsightly pipe once and for all.
"It's gonna be dug by what we call affectionately 'the Mole'," says Kirk Caldwell, Acting Honolulu Mayor.
Heavy equipment that will chew thru nearly 6,000 feet to dig out the longest micro-tunnel line ever built in Hawaii.
The hope is visitors to Waikiki will notice more palm trees and less pipe once it's moved underground inside a tunnel about 6-feet in diameter.
"This process is almost like orthoscopic surgery, where we just make a few incisions and go point to point," says Franco Coluccio, Coluccio Construction, the contractor for the project.
The advanced tunneling technology is expected to minimize noise and traffic disruptions.
The underground line will run from behind Ala Wai school to Ala Moana Beach Park.
"This Mole will be dropped in thru different shafts along the way... this tunnel will cross the Ala Wai channel twice," says Caldwell.
A massive undertaking to keep the sewage spill of 2006 from happening again. When 40-straight days of rain triggered a the City to dump sewage into the Ala Wai.
"The tunneling will probably begin mid-early October," says Coluccio.
"Oh, it will be a 1,000 times better - better for everybody," says Woo.
The project is expected to be completed in 2012. After that both the above-ground pipe and the one in the Ala Wai canal will be gone for good.
