Members of the public were mostly quiet during a public meeting Wednesday about plans to build new facilities and infrastructure, including a roundabout, in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
HVNP and the U.S. Geological Survey held the last of a series of meetings to discuss a proposed $49 million recovery project to replace park facilities damaged during the 2018 Kilauea eruption.
The project — funded with $28 million from the National Park Service and another $21 million from USGS — would demolish the Jaggar Museum and other buildings on the Uekahuna Bluff that were critically damaged during the eruption and build a new visitor center near the existing one, which would be replaced partly with a new education center.
It would also build new parking spaces and install a roundabout at the park entrance to improve traffic circulation, and a new USGS field station would be built near Kilauea Military Camp.
Public comment period about the project’s environmental assessment opened at the beginning of July and closes at the end of the month. But the Wednesday meeting aroused little discussion.
Questions during the meeting ranged between concerns about whether the roundabout will be able to manage large vehicles such as buses — project manager Chad Weiser said it has been designed with buses in mind, while an additional bus dropoff point will be added to the new visitor center — and whether the new facilities will create additional jobs — park Superintendent Rhonda Loh said probably not.
During a gap between questions, Loh said she is most excited for the changes to Uekahuna Bluff. In addition to the demolition of damaged facilities on the bluff, the nearby overlook area will be expanded into the Jaggar Museum’s original footprint, with new benches installed using stone salvaged from the museum.
Loh also said that the park might consider installing a hula platform at the Uekahuna overlook after a question from one attendee, although she added that the possibility had not been raised before.
Attendees at the meeting did not react to statements by environmental consultant Amanda Childs that the construction process will require the removal of up to 75 ohia trees. While Childs said the project will plant additional ohia trees to counterbalance that impact, the environmental assessment notes that it can take 30 years for ohia forests to be reestablished after removal.
Childs also noted that the project could impact local nene populations, but the NPS and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have concluded that it is “not likely to adversely affect” the birds.
HVNP spokeswoman Jessica Ferracane said that, after the public comment period closes on July 31, there are additional review processes necessary for things such as project impact mitigation measures. However, she said, the earliest the project can break ground is March 2023, with the work expected to conclude within four years after that.
People can read and comment on the environmental assessment at tinyurl.com/bdz9ptez.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitriune-herald.com.
