Alternate makai access road?

[kalakoa]

resources will be funneled to the widening of Highway 130

The "full 4 lanes to Pahoa" was approved, I wonder which decade it's for?

[Frankie Stapleton]

Thanx for the discussion here. It's interesting to see the responses from people that came in different decades. When I bought in lower Puna (1977), an alternate makai route was considered a matter of fact. There used to be a Transportation Committee (sponsored by the state DOT so it was scheduled during the middle of a workday) that met in Keaau, monthly I do believe. And when HPP got a big influx of people in the 80s, many of whom were retired military, they started going to the Transportation Committee meetings, got named to the committee, etc. a luxury the working public couldn't afford. And they got the state to drop an alternate makai route as a priority. It's a matter of public record.

Ever since then, despite numerous meetings with literally hundreds of people attending and requesting such in the 90s and 2000s, the state DOT has not prioritized a new makai thoroughfare.

For the people in HPP, how many were aware that the HPP plan called for community development along 15th and 16th? I don't know if the HPP plans still include that (there were suggestions of a laundromat, post office, an ABC-type store for milk and bread, etc.)

So we all have different understandings of the history of the quest for an alternate makai route. It is my understanding that it has been Shipman Estate's opposition to such a route that has stalled it more than any other factor.

Also, the idea is to avoid Keaau's populated area entirely, especially in light of the planned Shipman development. Parts of Railroad might work but Railroad is a private right-of-way. From what I could see on Google maps, there is lots of undeveloped ag land between Hwy 130 and the coast which I'm sure the state would be able to have other ag lands to provide a fortuitous trade to Mauna Loa Macnut people and Shipman Estate.

Again, thanks for the discussion and the aloha....

[bluesboy]

Any additional route will have to go through someone's backyard, the original designers stuck us with that reality long ago.

The 4 laneing of 130 to Pahoa will definitely help, and that's already in motion.

The targeting of many small other connectors could definitely help. I live in Mtn View on the south side of 11. An alternate route to volcano or pahoa would be welcome, even if it was through all the subdivisions. The Kahikopele proposal is an interesting one. I can see how that could work given the various cross streets that already exist. I would hope that enough land could be acquired so the maze of left and right turns from street to street could be avoided. A few curves would be acceptable, but hopefully a continuous path would be possible, and could be paved for a 35mph speed limit.

[james weatherford]

quote:

---

Originally posted by rainyjim

quote:

---

Originally posted by ericlp

I say for 200Million one could put in high speed rail from kalapana out to hilo stop at target / mall / UH / hilo shopping center and down to old town. Would be nice view of the ocean along the way.

---

Not a bad idea, I would like one around the belt road also as well as down the puna 'cul-de-sac'.

---

$200 million would not even start a modern passenger railway.
and, Puna will never have the 500,000 population in a small area or more it takes to justify a modern passenger railway. Furthermore, building a new modern railway into an existing city, such as Hilo, is always more expensive and disruptive. Honolulu being case in point in terms of cost and disruption.

[eigoya]

The new SMART line is supposed to connect Santa Rosa to the Bay Area ( not sure if it's only to MARIN OR....) but that has been decades in the making and still contentious. Even Cloverdale had a s****y new terminal built over 10 years ago! While Puna can't justify a rail with the current population, I wonder what a scenIc lite rail would do for tourists, port, airport, govt road to Pohoiki or Kalapana?

[james weatherford]

lot of this has been covered here on PunaWeb before.
Rail for passengers of any kind is very expensive and there are just not that many people in Puna -- visitors, residents, and all.
However, try Google "guided busway" -- convenience, flexibility and lower cost of bus, with the speed of rail.

[eigoya]

I swear I wrote s****y up there. Why/ how did it go to asterisks?
S W A N K Y is not a swear word, is it?

[james weatherford]

This was a discussion from three years ago ...

http://www.punaweb.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12047&whichpage=1