Hawaii County is moving forward, after decades of planning, on a connector road between Alii Drive and Kuakini Highway.
Hawaii County is moving forward, after decades of planning, on a connector road between Alii Drive and Kuakini Highway.
But work on the Laaloa Avenue will be delayed one more month, after the Department of Public Works failed to post a notice on the property announcing the upcoming construction and Leeward Planning Commission hearing on the department’s permit request.
The special management area application for the road, which will be a 1,900-foot extension of the existing Laaloa Avenue, was set to go before the commission Sept. 20. A department employee said Tuesday the failure to post the sign means the commission won’t discuss the application until Oct. 18. Because the item was already advertised on the commission’s agenda, the public will be allowed to testify anyway.
Mayor Billy Kenoi said the county will also need a Department of Health permit, which he expected to take 30 to 45 days to receive. If all goes well, the county could advertise for bids by the end of October.
“We’re hoping construction begins by the end of the year or early next year,” Kenoi said.
The county completed in March the second of two condemnation procedures, purchasing land from White Sands Estates LLC, the San Francisco Residence Club, Jeff Culver of the Jeff Culver Revocable Trust, Kennedy Funding LLC and Alii Architects for $134,000. The most expensive parcel was also purchased through condemnation, a $232,000 piece of land owned by Robert Iwamoto, according to the permit application. The 3rd Circuit Court set those purchase prices. Other pieces cost $7,400, $99,800 and $23,000, for a total of about $496,000 spent on land acquisition for the road.
County Council members in 2011 approved a $20 million bond to build the road. Kenoi said he expected the upper portion of the project would cost about $14 million, while a lower portion may cost about $5 million. He would like to see enough funds left over to signalize the intersection, he said.
Public Works Director Warren Lee said the “tough part” of environmental planning, land acquisition and archaeological assessments are completed. Construction is the easy part, he added.
“I think it will go smoothly,” Lee said. “This seems like it’s something everyone wants.”
Once built, the connection will be the first in a 3.5-mile stretch of Alii Drive between Royal Poinciana Drive and Kamehameha III Road.
“The traffic volume is forecast to rise and traffic congestion will (increase) if no makai-mauka connectors are built,” the application, submitted by consultant CH2M Hill, said. “The project would decrease traffic congestion and would increase overall traffic safety for the area.”
The archaeological assessment found four sites that could be impacted by the construction, but a State Historic Preservation Division officer ruled the sites’ precontact habitation areas, would not be affected.