Puna residents will have to wait another month before the latest construction project on Highway 130 ends.
The state Department of Transportation is now anticipating traffic signals to be in place at Shower Drive and Highway 130 by the new year. The nearly $4 million intersection improvement project was most recently expected to be complete this month.
Shelly Kunishige, a DOT spokesperson, said in an email that the project is being coordinated with restriping between mile markers 2 and 4. That will provide four 11-foot-wide travel lanes 24 hours a day, seven days a week in that area. Shoulders will be 6 feet wide.
That work is being done on the weekends, she said.
The Shower Drive intersection improvement project started in January and initially was expected to be done in August. But it was delayed after a storm water discharge permit expired.
Both projects are anticipated to be done by the end of the year.
State Sen. Russell Ruderman said the construction has resulted in significant congestion at times, when work coincided with rush hour. He said the most recent delays were understandable given the weather.
“I think it’s something worth waiting for,” said Ruderman, D-Puna, “and everybody has been pretty patient, considering the traffic jams we have had. We’re certainly looking forward to the completion very soon.”
Ruth Mizuba, a resident of Hawaiian Paradise Park who sits on the community association’s board, said the light will help residents who live mauka of the intersection enter the highway safely on their way to work.
But she is concerned about having narrower lanes because of the restriping. If a car stalls, there might not be much room to get around, Mizuba said.
Ruderman said he thinks the narrower lanes are a fair trade-off to provide two lanes in each direction around the clock in that area.
“We need two lanes in each direction full time,” he said.
But Ruderman added it doesn’t leave much room for bicyclists.
“It seems like we’re sealing this into the cement that there will be no bike lanes,” he said.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
