Work to restore a portion of Highway 137 will begin early next year after a lower Puna road restoration project finally cleared one of its last major hurdles.
A large-scale Hawaii County project to repair roads and water lines damaged and destroyed by the 2018 Kilauea eruption has been progressing to the beat of a federal drum, with the go-ahead for the work resting solely with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is contributing 75% of the cost.
FEMA on Nov. 3 published its final environmental assessment for the project. The final EA, which found the project would have no significant impact on the environment, was one of the last steps needed before the county can begin construction work.
While the EA isn’t the last approval from FEMA — the agency also needs to issue a notice to proceed — Jen Myers, spokeswoman for the county’s Disaster Recovery office, said she is confident work on the first phase of the project will begin in the first quarter of 2024.
“We’re definitely looking forward to being able to show the results of our work next year,” Myers said.
Myers said it’s unclear when FEMA’s notice to proceed will be issued, but explained the county can wrap up the final engineering and design work in the meantime.
The final EA included only one substantial change to the project: It rearranged its four phases, with one phase shifted from the first phase to the last.
That phase, which will restore a portion of Lighthouse Road from the “Four Corners” intersection at Highway 137, was moved back following public concerns about visitor impacts to Kumukahi that were raised after the draft EA was published in August.
“A lot of us were very supportive of pushing that back,” said Jan Marshall, former resident of Kapoho Vacationland. “I know from having managed the tide pool areas that Vacationland people are very aware of the need for bathrooms and trash pickup at places like that.”
Marshall said traffic to Kumukahi has slowed since the eruption, but added that if easy access is restored before a proper management plan is developed, the area will become flooded with thoughtless visitors who could damage the environment.
The Hawaii County Council on Wednesday passed a resolution urging the administration to take action to preserve the resources of Kumukahi and protect Hawaiian burial sites, many of which have been despoiled by tourists over the years.
Myers said county officials met with Native Hawaiians and FEMA to thoroughly explain what was at stake at Kumukahi. She said that although the situation was unusual compared to what FEMA typically deals with, the agency was receptive to the community’s request.
Shifting the Lighthouse Road phase to the end of the project hasn’t significantly changed the timeline for the other phases. The new first phase, which will restore a stretch of Highway 137 from “Four Corners” to Kapoho Beach Road, will begin in early 2024 and should end by the fall of that year.
Deb Smith, whose Kapoho home was isolated by lava in 2018, said reopening the road to Kapoho Beach Road might allow her to finally be able to reach her house by car, rather than walking nearly two miles each day across lava fields and through jungles.
She said she applied for a county grant to grade a road to her home from Kapoho Beach Road, and the results of that application should be announced soon.
The subsequent phases of the restoration effort also are expected to begin next year.
Preparations for road and water line repairs along Pohoiki Road should begin in the first quarter of 2024 and conclude by the second quarter of 2025, while prep work for road and water line repairs for the remainder of Highway 137 from Kapoho Beach Road to Pohoiki Road will begin by the third quarter of next year and end one year later.
Work to clear a stretch of Highway 137 between Pohoiki Road and MacKenzie State Recreation Area will take place between the second and fourth quarters of 2025.
The final phase, Lighthouse Road, should begin in September 2025 and end by November 2025.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.