Jackie Chong has lived in Waiahole for more than 25 years and cannot remember a year when Kamehameha Highway didn't flood from the overflow of an unnamed stream in the Waikane Valley.

"The water always comes down from the valley and just covers everything," Chong said.

For decades the stream has jumped its bank during heavy rains and flooded Kamehameha Highway, blocking traffic, damaging cars and causing people to miss work.

Tomorrow, workers will begin removing debris and branches that clog the stream to reduce the chance of it overflowing its banks and turning the highway into a pond.

Chong said she's happy to hear that years of complaints from residents have been heard. She once drove through flood water more than 7 inches deep near the Waikane Stream bridge to get home.

"I went through it thinking it wasn't as high as it was," Chong said. "When I got home, it was all dirty in the engine part."

She said she frequently sees traffic back up along Kamehameha Highway when the road floods — and there isn't anything residents can do about it. "We just have to wait," Chong said. "It's every time it rains."

The city and the state Housing and Community Development Corporation share ownership of the stream and have disagreed in the past about whose responsibility it is to clean it.

In August, the city agreed to spend $250,000 to clear debris from a 200-foot length of the stream. The state agreed to share the cost of contracting out the project. The contractor is Glad's Landscaping and Tree Trimming Inc.

The city spent $132,400 in 2004 to remove trees that impeded water flow at the mouth of Waikane Stream, which joins with the unnamed stream. The state Department of Transportation also conducts regular cleanups near the stream.

In the past, residents in the community blamed poor maintenance of the streams for the flooding. City officials hope clearing the debris will put an end to the problem.

"Kamehameha Highway is the key artery for the people on the Windward Coast and I'm just glad we're going to be able to help them," Mayor Mufi Hannemann said in a written statement.

Justin Miranda, who lives along Farrington Highway and helps manage his family business, Waiahole Botanicals, said he's glad to hear the city and state will be doing something about the stream.

"We used to have a worker who lived out in Ka'a'awa and sometimes he just couldn't come to work because they shut down the roads," said Miranda, 25. He said he saw the stream overflow onto the road about six times last year.

But preventive measures like the cutting back of hau bush near the stream has helped keep it from overflowing, Miranda said. He said he hopes the additional work will help keep the road from being shut down.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.