Minimal traffic impact
Martha “Cory” Harden in her letter (Your Views, Tribune-Herald, Sept. 6), questioned the impacts of Honua Ola’s logging trucks on traffic and noted perceived similarities to cane trucks in the sugar plantation days.
Honua Ola will not have a noticeable effect on highway traffic. A recent independent traffic study and survey found that Honua Ola’s operations will have no significant impact on the intersection of Highway 19 and Sugar Mill Road/Kaupakuea Homestead Road.
To put things into perspective, on average, 8,500 vehicles use Hawaii Belt Road each day, according to the Department of Transportation. Honua Ola will only average 33 truckloads per day between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Consequently, the presence of trucks servicing Honua Ola will be insignificant and should put to rest any concerns about the “long lines of exasperated drivers” Ms. Harden imagines.
Many trucks of the same size and weight are already using the same roadways, without any reported problems.
Ms. Harden may want to recall that if overgrown eucalyptus and albiza trees are not cut, we’ll have to worry about the dire impacts these trees can deliver during high-wind conditions, like those that occurred with Tropical Storm Iselle in 2014.
The way I see it, Honua Ola is helping us manage and avert a dangerous situation which, left unchecked, threatens homes, structures, overhead transmission and telephone lines, roadways and streams.
While I do believe in drawing from our community’s past woes as a guide for future activities, and speaking as a professional truck driver, I don’t think the example chosen is a credible analogy to the transport Honua Ola will use.
Morgan Leopoldino
Hilo
Bad call, HTH
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away Sept. 18. She was a formidable person. She fought for civil rights, had a profound love for this country, and a work ethic like no other.
She worked through several bouts of cancer, through chemotherapy.
She worked and honored this country to her last breath.
She was a role model to millions of us.
Any self-respecting newspaper would have a long front-page article on Sept. 19, honoring her life and her achievements. Yet, the Tribune-Herald relegated her to about a third of a page on page A8!
Shame on you, Hawaii Tribune-Herald!
Marion Nipper
Hakalau