A criminal population fueled by an illegal drug trade threatens the public's safety under highways and bridges along O'ahu's central corridor, state and police officials said.

"Fifteen years ago, it was never a drug problem," said Scott Naleimaile, a state Department of Transportation highways division engineer. "Over the years, it's changed dramatically. All the areas I go to now, it's always drugs. I've had guns and knives pointed at me, so whenever I go ... to the bad areas, I always go with a (police) officer. Because of the drugs, you never know who you're dealing with."

Naleimaile said the problem is islandwide, but appears to be most troublesome along Kahili's Olomea Street, under the Ke'ehi Interchange, Waipahu Depot Road, and along the Kamehameha Highway corridor from 'Aiea to Pearl City.

Solutions, officials said, will require a concerted effort from state government, local police, residents and, in some cases, even the military.

Maj. Debora Tandel, commander of the Pearl City police district, said long-term solutions will also come from partnerships involving the community.

"There's not one solution for everything because each area is different," Tandel said. "We've had groups come to us with solutions that work."

In Waikele, for example, residents formed a group that is successfully combating graffiti, a move that Tandel called "a community-driven solution."

Residents along Kaluamoi Drive, in the Waiau area near Blaisdell Park, are complaining about crimes, such as theft and vandalism and nuisances, ranging from piles of trash to noisy groups loitering in public areas.

"They've taken it over," said James Golding, a Kaluamoi resident for 12 years. "The cops do their best but they can't be here 24 hours."

The problems have increased over the past three years, Golding said, noting that neighbors now don't let their young children ride bicycles in the area.

"This is not a homeless issue, it's all about drugs," he said. "You can't turn your back for a minute. They steal tools, bikes and mopeds, slash tires, and I've had a knife pointed at me when I tried to confront them."

'SCUM OF THE EARTH'

In a recent incident, a vagrant drove off in a van parked in front of his house, with Golding's aunt napping inside. When the aunt awoke, the driver got out of the car and fled. Twenty minutes later, he returned to a group gathered near Golding's house. He was with the group when police later arrested him.

Utu Langi, manager of the state's temporary homeless shelter in Kaka'ako, said many of the vagrants living in the hideaways are homeless drug addicts. Drug dealers visit the sites to tap the addicts to run drugs, he said.

"People who are homeless and out in the open have nothing to hide," Langi said. "The simple logic is those in hiding have something to hide. The one main criminal activity they are doing is drugs."

"The environment of drugs and alcohol mixed with lack of hope creates a huge violent world," Langi said. "I know this. I'm a product of (O'ahu Community Correctional Center) who was facing 45 years for dealing drugs before my life changed. Dealers are scum of the earth and those who want what they got are going to steal, do whatever it takes to get the money."

A bust last week supports Langi's assertion that the dealers don't live in the hideaway sites.

Police arrested two men and a woman near Kaluamoi and each of them lives elsewhere. A 21-year-old Waipahu man was arrested on two counts of unlawful trafficking after he allegedly sold crystal methamphetamine to an undercover officer at Blaisdell Park. Two others who were with him, a 30-year-old Pearl City man and a woman, 31, from Waipahu, were arrested on warrants.

The DOT, meanwhile, is continuing to search for ways to curtail safety threats and deter crime tied to the hideaway sites.

"We've been stuck in the box for a long time, so we welcome the public's help and ideas for solutions," State Transportation Director Rod Haraga said.

Consideration has been given to leasing space, but in many areas, liability and federal restrictions make it difficult to do, the director said.

One measure the DOT is gearing up is the transformation of an illegal chop shop hideaway in Pearl City into a site were wet material removed during storm drain cleaning would be taken to dry before being sent to the landfill. Construction of the $2 million facility is expected to be completed by late 2007.

The DOT also plans to use concrete barriers and surplus zipper lane barriers to create a more open area at the site.

Another action involved the Navy. Lt. Barbara Mertz said the Navy, which is responsible for the Pearl Harbor shoreline, has recently cleared about 1,000 feet of mangrove near Kaluamoi to make it safer for users of the Pearl Harbor Trail bike path.

Haraga said, "It's a safety issue for us. Our main goal is to get them out of our right of way."

In addition, he said, "We're mandated by the federal government to inspect our bridges once every two years. In the process of doing that, if we don't provide a safe environment for our inspectors that's a liability we incur. So for many of our employees, not just our regular maintenance employees, it has become a safety issue."

Haraga said some businesses, such as taxi cab services and tow truck operations, are contributing to problems. In some cases, cabs have dropped off customers at bridge areas that are known prostitution sites. And in one case, a tow company apparently took six vehicles tagged in a DOT sweep to the Pearl City chop shop site, where they will now have to be removed by the state as part of an upcoming cleanup.

Until a long-term solution is found, authorities are left to sweep areas as problems arise.

In a recent sweep, police seized six rifles and found computers, televisions, vacuum cleaners, furniture and other stolen items stored under the Olomea Street bridge, Naleimaile said. About 35 people were loitering under the bridge in the early morning hours leading to the sweep.

"We were watching that morning and they were running up to cars doing their drug deals," he said. "There were cars dropping off girls. It was a big operation."

Officials also found that vagrants had constructed elaborate wooden structures under the Olomea Street bridge as part of a drug operation that included prostitution.

'CAN'T CONTROL THEM'

Similar hideaway sites, such as the area under the Ke'ehi Interchange near the transfer station, are now considered too dangerous for state maintenance crews to enter to cut grass and clean up.

"Fencing, barbed wire, signs don't work. They're well aware of what we're doing. I put up two (no trespass) signs at Olomea after the sweep and they were gone the next day. They know the signs have to be up for (police) to have authorization.

"We can kick them out today, and tomorrow they'll be right back. We just can't control them."

O'ahu is not alone in contending with the hideaways under state highways and bridges, Haraga noted.

"It's not a problem that's only endemic to Hawai'i," Haraga said. "There's a prolific amount of drug dealing on the local streets in the city of Los Angeles under the bridges. They do the same thing we do — call police, chase them out and they come back."

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.