After a months-long, multi-million dollar maintenance project, the historic Diamond Head Lighthouse will reveal its facelift next April.
Since August, the century-old lighthouse has been enshrouded in scaffolding and sheeting as part of an ongoing U.S. Coast Guard project to repair aging materials throughout the tower.
“There’s a lot of maintenance needs that kind of build up over time,” said Lt. Gray Haynie of the Honolulu Coast Guard’s Civil Engineering Unit. “The weather has affected the steel, so we have a bunch of corrosion work. The windows on the top, the steel dome on the inside, there’s a steel staircase that goes all the way up. And there’s painting that needs to be done around the site.”
Other work includes repairs to aging concrete, and replacing features such as ladders and windows.
Haynie said the project costs about $3.7 million in total, including additional maintenance work at the adjacent residence, which serves as the living quarters for the sitting Coast Guard commander of the Oceania District.
Both the lighthouse and the residence are over 100 years old — the lighthouse was built in 1917 and the residence in 1921 — although only the former is formally listed as a historic place. That listing made the project more complicated, Haynie said, requiring “rigorous paperwork” with the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ State Historic Preservation Division.
“We have to tell them the scope of work, what we intend on doing, how it affects the exterior,” Haynie said. “One of the big things they’re looking for is to maintain that historic image, the appearance of the outside … That affects the materials, it affects the cost and the duration, because it takes 90s days at least to get through the State Historic Preservation Division.”
While the project has been ongoing throughout the intense storms of the summer, Haynie said the lighthouse and scaffolding have withstood the winds of hurricanes Lala, Nolo and Lowell remarkably well.
Despite advances in seafaring technology, the lighthouse remains fully functional and a vital guidepost for boats approaching the island.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Valentin Leon said the lighthouse still uses its original Fresnel lens — a lens array that uses concentric circles built into the lenses and mirrors to focus the light rays — from its original construction. That lens, plus the modern LED lighting element, produces a beam that can be seen 21 nautical miles away, or about 24.1 standard miles.
“Sure, you can rely on GPS, but you know for 100% that this lighthouse is always going to be here,” Leon said. “So the mariners, even though they have GPS, will heavily rely on … every lighthouse throughout the [Coast Guard area of responsibility]. Considering that, what, over 90% of our commerce comes [by sea], the mariners out there, this is their daily routine, so they’re used to seeing this.”
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