Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
By PETER SUR
Tribune-Herald staff writer
The Big Island stands to benefit from millions of dollars in capital improvement projects that Gov. Neil Abercrombie is releasing, his office announced Thursday.
The governor released a total of $48.9 million from money appropriated by the state Legislature for projects statewide.
The largest single amount, $13 million, goes to the Honolulu International Airport to design a consolidated car rental facility. An additional $15 million goes to high school science facilities statewide, including on the Big Island.
Abercrombie also released $3.2 million for continuing work on the Lower Hamakua Ditch Watershed Project.
“We’ve been working on the Lower Hamakua Ditch Watershed for a number of years,” said state Rep. Mark Nakashima. “And basically, the Department of Agriculture has been putting funds in for a number of years to preserve the infrastructure out there.”
The ditch is in need of major repairs; the 2006 earthquake damaged the Hamakua conduit, and the blockage from a severe flood a number of years ago caused it to be blocked in the Kapulena area, which resulted in crop failures, Nakashima said. The Federal Emergency Management Administration has been funding work to enclose a portion of the ditch to ensure it doesn’t get blocked again, Nakashima said.
The $3.2 million is intended for land acquisition, design and construction to repair the watershed’s flumes, ditches, reservoirs and tunnels.
Abercrombie is also releasing $210,000 for drainage improvements on Hawaii Belt Road, near the Hakalau Bridge. Nakashima said that the state wants to create a drainage canal on the mauka side of the cliff that abuts the highway, so that water doesn’t spill onto the roadway during times of heavy rainfall.
In West Hawaii, the Department of Transportation is getting $357,800 to spend on seven separate highway sites that were damaged by the 2006 earthquakes. And Kona Community Hospital is getting funds to upgrade its wastewater treatment plant.
“It is essential that we continue the steady economic momentum achieved since last year,” Abercrombie said in a statement.
Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.