Lane closures on Kamehameha Avenue in Hilo are expected to last through the summer, as the lengthy construction project to reconstruct and upgrade the road has fallen off schedule due to a wet spring. ADVERTISING Lane closures on Kamehameha Avenue
Lane closures on Kamehameha Avenue in Hilo are expected to last through the summer, as the lengthy construction project to reconstruct and upgrade the road has fallen off schedule due to a wet spring.
“(We’re) slightly behind because of all the rain,” Hawaii County Department of Public Works director Warren Lee said Thursday. “We’re probably looking at late August or maybe even early September.”
Work is concentrated at the intersection of Kamehameha and Pauahi Street. The area from Bayfront to the intersection also will be reworked in the coming months, Lee said, as will the traffic signal.
“The signals right now are temporary signals,” he said.
Kamehameha’s closures began in March 2014. The four-lane road currently drops to two lanes at its Ponahawai Street intersection.
A construction completion date was initially pegged around midsummer 2015. The Isemoto Contracting Co. was awarded the $13 million project, which Lee said remains on budget. Eighty percent of the cost is funded by the Federal Highway Administration, with the remaining amount coming from county capital improvement funds.
Lee said he hadn’t received any recent complaints about the construction.
“Everybody got used to the traffic pattern,” he said, adding that people began using alternate routes, like Kilauea Avenue, early on. “That was really good.”
Even Pat Ehrenlechner, manager of Bayfront Motors, takes a different route to work. Bayfront Motors sits at the Pauahi intersection. A chainlink fence separates the business from the construction project, but not from the noise of rumbling, beeping excavators.
Ehrenlechner said the general consensus along the construction route — in addition to the dealership, there are three gas stations — was that the project slowed business. Customers still came in every day, he said, just not as many as before.
“People just avoid this area; they don’t want to come down,” he said. “I’d avoid it too, except I work here.”
The closures have affected annual events as well. The Merrie Monarch parade had a shorter route this year.
“The parade groups have been very understanding,” Lee said. “This is something we talked about with them before the actual work started.”
When completed, Kamehameha will have new sidewalks, turn lanes and bike lanes. LED streetlights are being installed, and curb-cuts added. Crews are fixing gutters to improve drainage on the road.
The county has two other longterm roadwork projects in progress: improvements to Manono Street, which like Kamehameha includes new sidewalks and better drainage, and the Kapiolani Street extension.
Manono is funded with a mix of county and federal funds. The Kapiolani project broke ground in March and will link Lanikaula and Mohouli streets. It is funded entirely by the county.
“Kapiolani is going to be another year,” Lee said. “They’re far out there.”
