Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
By PETER SUR
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Small groups of people engaged in lively discussions Wednesday night in Hilo to identify transportation problems in East Hawaii.
The public meeting was hosted by the Hawaii Department of Transportation as part of a months-long process of updating transportation plans for Hawaii Island and the state. A previous plan had been developed in the 1990s, but since that time, the Big Island has experienced major population growth, and with it, major traffic congestion problems.
The plan that the DOT is developing now is intended to address the Big Island’s population through 2035. Previous traffic analyses have shown that the island’s current highway system will be woefully inadequate to accommodate future growth if no additional capacity is built by that time.
“This is the part where we’re looking for community input for potential solutions,” said DOT Project Manager Dave Zevenbergen. “Tonight, nothing is going to be left alone. We’re asking for any ideas that people have. And who knows the roads better than their citizens?”
Fewer than 20 people turned out, but those who did were eager to point out deficiencies in the island’s highways to state officials.
The heart of the meeting was devoted to group sessions. To encourage discussion, meeting participants were broken up into small groups of four or five, given felt pens of different colors and told to write on large maps the issues that they felt important.
Discussions focused on the often congested Highway 130, the Keaau-Pahoa Road, which is scheduled for widening and improvement in the coming years.
Ron Terry, one of the meeting participants, wrote “45 mph” in pen next to the Puna highway.
In another group, James Weatherford, a Hawaiian Paradise Park resident and candidate for County Council, circled his subdivision’s intersections and wrote “Roundabouts @ one or more intersections.”
“It is the most dangerous road in the whole state right here,” Weatherford said. Then Weatherford wrote on the map: “Most dangerous intersections in the state.”
At the end of the session, a representative of each of the four groups presented their top priorities. Each of the four groups cited improvements to Highway 130 as their top need.
Other requests included an alternate route between Puna and Hilo, the extension of the Saddle Road between Kona and Hilo, and improvements to the Hawaii Belt Road in the vicinity of Honuapo in Ka’u.
Ken Tatsuguchi, an engineering manager with the DOT, said it was “unreal” how the groups came up with similar recommendations.
The next step for DOT officials is to take all the input that they’ve gathered from the Big Island and recommend solutions, which will be presented to the public sometime in the summer for another round of comments.
“We are in the process of developing a Statewide Regional Long-Range Land Transportation Plan,” Zevenbergen said. “At the same time, we are developing long-range transportation plans for the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kauai.” The plans are required by the federal government to identify long-term needs, projects and priorities for land transportation.
As for the current status of improvements to Highway 130, Tatsuguchi said that his understanding was that the state is still in the land acquisition phase for the shoulder lane conversion project between the Keaau Bypass Road and the Shower Drive intersection.
“It appears that it’s taking longer than expected,” he said.
On the Internet: http://www.hawaiilongrangeplan.com.
Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.