Pohoiki Progress

[Sam Son]

.    A prominent Big Island barrister recently decided he wanted to construct a second home on the Puna Coast.  Sparing no expense for the rather small, single-story love nest on half-an-acre of oceanfront land in Waawaa, he hired a prestigious Hilo consultant to prepare the Environmental Impact Statement.  To justify their exorbitant fees, these construction regulation professionals published an epic, eye-straining, 240-page tome describing this tiny house.

     At last month's Revitalize Puna meeting, the Limtiaco Consulting Group representative explained that there was currently a study of the submerged Pohoiki Boat Ramp being conducted to figure out the scope of the Environmental Impact Statement.  Work on the actual document -- expected to be slightly longer than a Clive Cussler novel -- will begin when the results are in and could "probably" be published for public review by January of next year.  

     If it concludes with a Finding of No Significant Impact, then the objections that Senator Joy San Buenaventura recently stated were made "strenuously and with litigation" by Protectors must be addressed.  And if after a few years in the legal system this geoengineering feat is still found to be no big deal, then funding must be obtained to design, and eventually build, this facility.

     So why aren't I positive Pohoiki will never be dredged no matter how much it will uselessly degrade the coastline?  Because federal money is available to do it, and Mayor Mitch will never pass up a chance to throw the construction industry a cash cow, regardless of how futile or senseless or time-consuming the project.  Heck, now he's even paying an engineering firm to have exclusive access to Waipio Valley for a week.

           Cowabunga, Dudes!

[kalianna]

Your post is very confusing. What does the Wa'a Wa'a home have to do with Pohoiki? And why is the boat ramp useless? Tell that to the fishermen who have to haul their boats to Hilo and brave the surf to get back down to Puna. And why are you opposed to checking the stability of the Waipio access road? Should it just stay the way it is until it falls apart completely? It's not "exclusive access". It's just closed. Period. How else do engineers conduct their survey on a very steep one lane road?

[Obie]

It's all because of regulations that were enacted that require that kind of review.

Right now my home in Kapoho is under 85 feet of lava !

It's also under an EIS and a cultural review delay before I can get a payout. I'm pretty sure the only cultural things on my property are my mother-in-laws ashes and a beautiful squash blossom neckless that my wife left behind. It was given to her by her Mexican father.

[AaronM]

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/202...-complete/

4/6/23 More Good News!

Hawaii County is urging patience as a long-awaited eruption recovery project in lower Puna is delayed yet again.

"On Wednesday, the county announced that an environmental assessment required to begin work to restore roads that were cut off by lava during the 2018 Kilauea eruption has still not been completed by a federal agency, despite previous assurances that the document would be completed by January.

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency decided in Sept. 2021 to consolidate multiple projects — the restoration of the upper part of Pohoiki Road, a realignment of the lower part, and the restoration of portions of Lighthouse Road and Highway 137 — into one, and began work on a combined environmental assessment for those projects.

At the time, that decision pushed the project’s projected start date to mid-2023. But just months before that date has arrived, FEMA is still working on the environmental assessment.

County Recovery Officer Douglas Le said FEMA is completing its final procedural review of the assessment, and that, since a legal review of the draft hasn’t turned up any problems, the document should be unveiled sometime within the next month.

“It’s still within FEMA’s workflow, so it’s still on FEMA to finish it,” Le said. “But we have been working closely with FEMA to complete the final disclosures for the report.”

The County’s Wednesday announcement included an updated timeline that anticipated that construction is now expected to begin February of 2024. A previous schedule the county released in October estimated that the first phase of the project could begin by the second quarter of this year.

Le acknowledged that residents who have been waiting for the road to reopen for nearly five years will be disappointed by the delay, but added that once the draft is completed, he anticipates no further setbacks.

When it does begin, construction will take place over four phases. The first will restore a portion of Lighthouse Road and Highway 137 connecting to Kapoho Beach Road, while the second, which will begin concurrently with the first, will restore the upper and lower parts of Pohoiki Road and a small part of Leilani Avenue.

Phases three and four will respectively restore sections of Highway 137 from Kapoho Beach Road to Pohoiki Road, and north of Mackenzie State Recreation Area.

Following the assessment’s publication, a 30-day public comment period will be held, likely in May, Le said. Depending on what feedback comes from that, contractors can begin preparing a final engineering design around July, a process which should take about three months.

“Obviously we can’t finalize the engineering design until the (assessment) is finished,” Le said, adding that, following the completion of the design, the county will begin its procurement process.

The full project is funded through a 75-25% split between FEMA and Hawaii County, with the federal agency providing about $61.5 million of the estimated $82 million price tag. However, Le noted that with costs of goods rising everywhere, the final price of the project itself will be dependent upon the final design, although the amount of FEMA funding received will not change.

Meanwhile, Le said the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation is working on a draft environmental assessment for a project that would reopen the Pohoiki Boat Ramp by completely removing the sandbar that formed in front of the ramp during the eruption. That project, estimated to cost $40 million, has no scheduled start date."