Plan to stay waiting in traffic
Thursday, September 28, 2006 at 09:22PM Here's what I liked least about the state's plans for Rt. 130, laid out at a meeting of the governor's East Hawaii Advisory Council Thursday night at Makuu farmer's market.
It isn't that the state's plans are unlikely to help any time soon, or that all the plans are unfunded, or that the state DOT's highways director had little or no knowledge of severe traffic problems facing Puna residents daily. It was the part about skirting environmental requirements to excuse a cheaper, inferior, do-nothing project.
Aside from some minimal improvements at key intersections that might get done by 2008, the DOT's interim plan is to make the existing "shoulder lane" between Shower Drive and the Keaau bypass permanent. But the DOT won't add another lane to the existing three because that would trigger costly and time-consuming federal environmental studies.
So two of the three lanes always will go to Hilo. One always will come back, which is no NO FIX AT ALL for drivers approaching Pahoa-bound Keaau bottleneck in the late afternoon. In fact the project changes nothing for drivers anywhere in Puna during peak traffic hours. The commuters stopped in bumper-to-bumper traffic as far back as Ainaloa at 7:15 a.m. will still be there after this work is done whenever that is. But at least they can take comfort knowing environmental corners were cut to bring it to them two years faster.
The Big Daddy of unfunded Rt. 130 improvements is the $60 million, seven-year widening project all the way to Keaau. And if you think you'll be cruising along on that one in 2013 then, well, you wanna buy a bridge? I'm not even going to consider it here.
But Morioka's apparent lack of information about traffic concerns at places like Rt. 130 at Kahakai, at the entrance to Malama Mart, and at the new water station just down the road, was incredible to note. This state highway comes under his jurisdiction for crying out loud, and this isn't the first time people have been crying out loud about it.
Councilman Gary Safarik said he's been identifying traffic problems along Rt. 130 in correspondence with Gov. Linda Lingle for years. He recalled a similar meeting in 2004: "I had the same responses a couple of years ago with this same body," Safarik said.
Meanwhile, impassioned residents raised innovative plans for roundabouts and portable solar-powered traffic signals. "More cars moving faster is not what Puna needs," Main Street Pahoa's Rob Tucker said.
But the bureaucracy seems determined not to be pushed off its track with that kind of thinking.
Yet what's clearer to me now more than ever after last night's meeting is that an alternate route is the first order of business. That would take the pressure off Rt. 130 and solve a huge public safety problem. All the traffic pouring onto Rt. 130 could be siphoned off into Hilo via the Railroad Avenue route much more quickly and efficiently than via Rt. 130. It's the option that needs to be seriously pursued.
And to Morioka's credit, he was aware of the Makuu market traffic problem on Sundays and said his department is working on that one. On the others? "We'll send someone down to check it out," Morioka said. He then had to duck out of the meeting at 6:15 while the discussion was ongoing to make his flight back to Honolulu.
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Reader Comments (13)
I just wanted to thank you for being there to witness the comments of so many good people from Lower Puna. I hope that there will also be a flood of letters to the editor of both the Hawaii Tribune Herald and the Honolulu Advertiser, so that the general public gets wind of the thinking here in Lower Puna. Why in the world the State is so stuck on the expensive idea of making Hwy. 130 even more of a mess with more lanes and lights all along the way is beyond me. I sat next to Gary and his frustration with the "Same old Stuff in different bags" approach was really getting under his collar.
I felt the temperature of the room getting higher and higher every time a date of completion was mentioned. We kept looking around to see if they could possibly be getting all the input down on their yellow pads, and wondered why there was no tape recorder to insure that all the questions and testimony was recorded as mandated in their mission.
I'm afraid that all we will get for the effort of getting them to meet with us here in Lower Puna will be lip service somewhere very far down the road.
At least your blog gets the information out to people and we can hope that there will actually be a ground swell of support for alternative ideas as to how the State helps Lower Puna find a way to access services, especially in the case of a natural disaster. I agree with you that the second way into town is the most important change that needs to happen. I also agree that Railroad Ave.all the way till it connects with Railroad Ave. in town is the way to go.
More exposure of the problems in the media every election cycle is about all we can hope for these days. Maybe someone will do something for us thinking it will change the vote somewhere. . .
Mahalo,
KD
here in Kona. This meeting was after a traffic accident on
Palani Road snarled traffic for a few hours. So emotions
ran high.Anyway three years later,we are starting to see
traffic improvements being made here.
Well done!
You were most definitely in attendance at the same meeting as me!
As usual, the political hack from Honolulu did not have a clue; and the committee of otherwise-nice-folks sitting at the head table had no idea what they had gotten themselves into!
The beautiful difference between this one and so many others is that the community was on the same page -- and, other than the very impressive Hawaiian Beach Action Team, without any prior 'conspiracy.' What does THAT tell you about how genuine the problem is?!
An alternate route from Pahoa to Hilo? Yes.
As a first and immediate priority? Yes.
Another highway just like #130? Please, no.
Without going into all the details here and now, I learned some lessons the hard way in the 'Puna Regional Circulation Plan' process as regards an alternate route. So as to share that info in a coherent manner I'll dig it out of the files, include some insight on hindsight, and send it around by email.
Puna, it seems is where Kona was 3 years ago. Which isn't saying much unfortunately :(.
After attending the meeting and seeing the people of Puna trying to make a difference. I’m starting to swell up a little with some of the Puna Pride that this community has. Unfortunate as it is, I don’t think that the board was listening to what was being said by the people. The statement was made that their plans have been made by the [ DOT ] some time ago and we can’t change them now. I ask you, what the Hell dose that mean? Why are we giving input to issues that have already been decided? I sat next to Gary Safarik and could feel his frustration with the board. Gary leaned over to me and said, “here we go with another make you feel good meeting”.
The one very good thing that I think took place at that meeting is: That board, sat back and took notice that they were not dealing with just a few people who wants some action, but rather a very organized group that is starting to demand some action. The Action Care Team is not giving up and will continue to get some attention. ACT is getting larger and will start being louder.
The Lack
Councilman Safarik's comments about the nature of the meeting, while valid, don't show any more original thinking on his part. His percieved lack of ability to get anything done may be a big reason he is in a run-off for his council position and given less than likely chances of re-election. Fairly or not, he is getting a lot of the blame for lack of progress on a lot of issues in Puna.
Pursuing the expansion of Railroad Ave into a new route into Hilo, while seemingly practical, will meet entrenched and vigorous opposition from the residents of HPP. Very few people in HPP want their community bisected by a high-speed highway, and with their population at 11,000 and growing, they will be a force to be reckoned with. The sad truth is that ANY plan to alleviate the traffic problems will be opposed politically and, in all likelihood, in the courts as well. Nobody wants a new highway in their backyard, so the guys from Honolulu have simply taken the most politically safe approach, which is to expand the highway we already have. Unfortunately, that still does give us a way out if 130 gets shut down.
Wish I knew the answer,
Wankine
I don’t think that many of the people that live in the HPP subdivision will oppose the opening of railroad street. These people are the ones that are suffering the most trying to get in and out of that place. The only people that I see who will “make a stink” are the ones that have purchased some property along side of that road. Remember the old saying “buyer beware” so be it, let’s get it going.
The Lack
Spoke last night with a friend who has been involved in the Puna Development Plan meetings. He says the County is proposing one plan that would use Railroad for a second Puna access route up to the boundaries of HPP on each side. At that point, the trans-HPP sector would switch over to a route somewhere along or either side of 15th. This apparently due to the fact that the old railway right of way used for Railroad Ave is not as wide as the other roads in HPP, and widening it would require buying out a number of homes, versus just slicing off a bit of land. He also mentioned that one version may actually run the road along the BACK of the lots so as not to have a highway in anyone's front yard. As a peace offering to the community, Railroad would be turned into a bike and hike special "alternative transportation corridor" with some park-like amenities.
Does anyone know if all this is for real? It sounds like something reasonable and forward-thinking, almost too good to be true. In any case, it will take them years and years and years to do anything, what with the Hawaiian political system being incapable of doing anything in a reasonable amount of time. And the State guys still seem hell-bent on four-laning 130 regardless.
No, that is not exactly correct. Some of the issues Wankine mentions have been discussed,but are not fully up to date.
The 'plans' for a new route Pahoa-Hilo came out of the Puna Regional Circulation Plan (PRCP) Process in 2004 and 2005.
Below is some background on my experience in that process.
I attended every meeting of the PRCP Community Advisory Group.
At the first meeting I attended, my point was that the ‘default position’ of a 100’ wide right-of-way was not what was needed.
The next meeting began with a presentation by the consultants, “widening alternatives” for Highway 130. Not widening as one alternative, but as the alternative. Of course, yours truly pointed out that this was not acceptable; and many, but not all, others agreed.
Through the process of the meetings, there arose a very vocal element in the Hawaiian Paradise Park (HPP) community, myself not included. The loudest (who no longer lives here!) accused the county of wanting to put a ‘high speed highway’ through HPP and that the entire process must be resisted. My position was that something less grand than an expressway was possible.
The County and consultant gave lots of lip service to multi-modal mobility and village center development.
Throughout the process I advocated for roundabouts, guided busways, limited access, and scenic parkway.
None of that made it into the final report!
After several meetings, one night a man attended. I do not recall his name – he was from Keaau. He had not previously been involved and that was the only meeting he attended.
He talked a little while about how some people in the community would accuse him of being in with Shipman Company, but really, he assured the group, he wasn’t doing Shipman’s bidding. He made only one main point: any new road should go to the airport.
That was the only time in the whole process that the airport was mentioned.
In the final report, the airport was the destination!
Perhaps two good ideas that came out of all of the façade of planning and hoopla were:
(1) a proposal that an alternative route not follow a single road through HPP, but that the traffic divide and be distributed over two different streets in crossing HPP and
(2) the use of Railroad Avenue for a bike and hike trail.
A couple of other points in the final report worth noting are:
(1) The ‘Government’ or ‘Beach’ Road is in a tsunami inundation zone and not eligible for highway funding; and
(2) Railroad Avenue, at least in some locations, could present extreme alignment problems for use as a road base. (At first I resisted this, but in the end accepted it.)
The county and consultants put out a mangled final report:
http://www.hawaii-county.com/info/puna/cirplanfinal.htm.
I have since prepared a brief one-page summary of some complementary ideas. I'll send those after the above is absorbed. (Hunter, I don't want to soak up excessive space here. Let me know I am over doing it :>)
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