WAIMEA — Although a number of questions remain around the Saddle Road extension, the project continues to pick up steam and may carry traffic as soon as 2020.
A draft EIS was released for the project on April 23, kicking off a 45-day comment period to end June 7. The next phase in the process before a final EIS is published this summer is a public hearing to be held May 17 at Waikoloa Village Elementary and Middle School from 6:30-9 p.m, during which public testimony may be submitted.
Ron Terry, of Geometrician Associates, said Tuesday at a South Kohala Traffic Safety Committee meeting that design will begin after the EIS process concludes. The project may select a design/build option in which construction would commence concurrently with the design process.
“We’re rapidly accelerating our projects and things are coming up fast,” Terry said. He added no matter the decision, construction is slated begin in 2018 and projected to finish two years later, assuming funding is available.
The design process is contingent on the route chosen for the extension and three options remain.
Alternative route 4 would connect Daniel K. Inouye Highway (DKI) with Queen Kaahumanu Highway, extending down the boundary between South Kohala and North Kohala, and would include no intersections, according to the Hawaii State Department of Transportation (DOT).
A DOT handout also outlined alternative route 5, which would run north of route 4 and connect to Waikoloa Road near mile marker 3. Alternative route 6 would be similar to route 5, but would appropriate two miles of Waikoloa Road west of mile marker 3.
All three routes would connect with Waikoloa Beach Drive.
“There is no preferred alternative in the EIS, unlike most EIS’s. At this point, we’re looking for community input to see what people like the best,” Terry said. “If I was going to handicap it, I’d say it’s between (routes) four and five.”
The EIS projects the cost of the extension could rise as high as $74 million based on the route selected. The federal government will fund 80 percent of the extension.
Spokesperson Shelly Kunishige told the Hawaii Tribune Herald in April that the DOT asked the state Legislature to authorize $17.8 million in revenue bonds to create funding for the state’s 20 percent share. That ask was based on an estimated project cost of $89 million — $15 million higher than the EIS estimate.
“The Legislature has appropriated the money that is necessary for this project and the federal government appears willing to match,” said Terry, adding if past funding is a good indication, the feds should come through once the state has its share of the money ready.
The extension is expected to mitigate the ever-increasing traffic flow across Hawaii Island. Since the project began, vehicle usage of Saddle Road has skyrocketed from 990 cars per day to more than 4,200 vehicles daily.
Those numbers are expected to leap to somewhere between 5,000-7,000 vehicles per day within the next decade and to as many as 20,000 vehicles per day by 2035 — unclogging cross-island traffic through Waimea.
The Saddle Road extension is expected to pick up such a heavy portion of traffic because, according to the EIS, it will save driver’s an average of 6.5 minutes for trips across the island.
“That’s not much. It’s not something to spend $75 million over, maybe,” Terry said. “But if you multiply 6.5 minutes by 5,000 to 20,000 vehicles per day, and multiply that by 365 (days), all of the sudden you’re talking about a lot of time saved, you’re talking about a lot of fuel saved, and greenhouse gas emissions and everything else. So it’s a significant savings.”
The extension would also make the intersection at DKI and Mamalahoa Highway safer. A rubbish truck’s brakes failed at the intersection Tuesday, resulting in a single vehicle accident that caused a widespread power outage, started a brush fire and ended with minor injuries to the operator of the truck.
One proposed intersection design would mimic a freeway intersection, creating a bridge over Mamalahoa Highway, under which there would be a signal light.
The draft EIS can be accessed online at https://tinyurl.com/saddleextension.
