Hawaii County is preparing to borrow up to $20 million for emergency road work to ensure Puna residents have a way in and out of their communities should lava cross Highway 130.
Hawaii County is preparing to borrow up to $20 million for emergency road work to ensure Puna residents have a way in and out of their communities should lava cross Highway 130.
County Council is scheduled to discuss Resolution 554 on Wednesday. The measure doesn’t actually borrow the money, but declares the county’s intent to authorize a bond issue to reimburse itself for expenses should it become necessary.
Deputy Finance Director Deanna Sako said floating a bond covers a worst-case scenario in the event the county can’t get federal funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or other sources.
“We’re hoping for federal funding first,” Sako said. “We’re still talking to FEMA.”
The county is spending $3 million to open Government Beach Road, which was a one-lane dirt road, and to connect Railroad Avenue between Nanawale Estates near Pahoa and Hawaiian Paradise Park.
The latest project, reopening Chain of Craters Road where it was buried by past lava flows, could cost between $12 million and $15.5 million, a spokesman for Mayor Billy Kenoi said Monday.
The county’s total bond debt as of June 30 was $359.8 million, according to a report from the Finance Department. But Sako said the county budgeted about $23.5 million to bring down that debt during the fiscal year that ends June 30.
Nearly 8 miles of Chain of Craters Road was buried by past lava flows from the ongoing Pu‘u ‘O‘o eruption. About 5.4 miles of that is within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
The re-established unpaved road would be used as an alternate route for lower Puna residents should the June 27 lava flow cut off access by crossing Highway 130 and other routes farther downslope.
If the other roads are cut off, a trip to Hilo from Pahoa would be about 64 miles by the Chain of Craters route, which would take residents through Volcano. It’s currently 17 miles.
Kenoi had projected the project would take between 45 and 60 days from the start, but he said work would be expedited if needed.
The public can testify on Resolution 554 at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the West Hawaii Civic Center or via videoconference from Hilo council chambers, the Waimea council office,the county facility in Kohala, Hawaiian Ocean View Estates Community Center or the Pahoa neighborhood facility.
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.