A Pahoa charter school’s efforts to improve road safety for students and parents could impact local traffic.
The Hawaii Academy of Arts and Science, a K-12 school with a primary campus just off of Highway 130 in Pahoa, plans to consolidate its disparate satellite facilities into one 24-acre parcel, Principal Steve Hirakami told the Tribune-Herald.
“They’re pretty nice satellite sites,” Hirakami said. “But between paying rent on so many places versus just having everything in one place, it’s obviously cheaper to get them all here.”
But because such a consolidation would bring increased traffic to the area — the HAAS serves about 700 students, according to a 2021-2022 report by the State Public Charter School Commission — Hirakami said heis discussing with the state Department of Transportation’s Highways Division potential traffic controls to make the area safer for students.
The school is located on Homestead Road, a private road intersecting Highway 130 just south of the Pahoa roundabout. Hirakami said the speed limit at the intersection is currently 35 mph, but it used to be 55 mph when the school was founded in 2001.
“It took a child getting hit by a car to change that,” Hirakami said. “We don’t want that to happen again before we change things.”
Hirakami said HAAS is working on traffic studies for the area and is discussing with DOT potential changes such as the installation of new turn lanes at the intersection, a traffic signal, and a second entrance to the school parking lot from Highway 130 — all of which, he admitted, likely will exacerbate the area’s frequent traffic problems, at least during construction.
“We don’t want to be the bad guys. We don’t want to ruin traffic for everyone,” Hirakami said. “But we are trying to be transparent about this process.”
Hirakami said it is very unlikely that any plans for the intersection will involve a new roundabout, citing continual problems with the roundabout installed in Ainaloa in 2020, which many residents say is too small to accommodate Highway 130’s everyday traffic.
“It would have to be sized perfectly,” Hirakami said. “We don’t want to have the same problems at Ainaloa.”
Puna Rep. Greggor Ilagan said HAAS has been pushing for improvements to the intersection near the school for years, most recently in 2019. He said he is willing to support the road project if the school and HAAS come up with a feasible plan that the community supports.
“The community needs to be willing to accept the expansion with the full understanding that a new light or something will interfere with traffic,” Ilagan said, noting that residents already are frustrated by the slow pace of state plans to alleviate the traffic problem.
But any of these changes are still a long way off. DOT spokeswoman Shelly Kunishige said the permitting process for changing the intersection can’t begin until HAAS submits a design, something Hirakami said is still being developed.
While HAAS was to hold a community meeting about the project in September, Hirakami said the meeting was postponed and does not have a new date. However, he added that he hopes to engage residents throughout the project’s development process to ensure full transparency.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.