Roundabout starts today, Open Railroad??

[BillyB]

For those who missed it, this was in todays Trib.

By IVY ASHE Hawaii Tribune-Herald

State officials will host an informational meeting Thursday night to update Puna residents about the state Department of Transportation’s roundabout project.

The meeting is slated for 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Pahoa Neighborhood Center on Kauhale Street.


DOT officials from Honolulu as well as Hawaii Island are expected to attend, along with state Sen. Lorraine Inouye and County Council members Greggor Ilagan and Daniel Paleka. Representatives from Isemoto Contracting also

will attend, said DOT spokesman Timothy Sakahara.

The meeting will feature information about the remaining work to be done on the roundabout, as well as its anticipated opening date.

Full story: http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/news...roundabout

[Kapoho Joe]

Still backed up - http://punatraffic.com/Cameras

[Guest]

What a nightmare!
The traffic jam in pahoa this morning at 9:00a.m was backed up to the post office road, took 45 minutes to get through pahoa. Bad timing again this afternoon around 5:00p.m because the traffic was backed up to orchidland drive. Took 1hr and 10 minutes to go from orchidland through pahoa's roundabout, plain traffic misery here in puna.

[Punatic007]

The one thing I really don't like about the roundabout other than poor traffic control, is that it fronts right up to Longs prescription drive thru. Most roundabouts I've travelled in Asia and Europe are strategically located near exceptional or at least pleasant architecture. Maybe there will be room to plant an attractive hedge to de-emphasize America's dependence on chemical drugs in mundane buildings.

[dakine]

What a nightmare!

Interestingly right now they are redoing the highway through Waimea and only work between 8pm and 4am (that's right only at night!) and there is no inconvenience to the daily use of the road at all. It's amazing what can be done with little forethought.

[opihikao]

dakine, this is Puna. "They" (the State, who planned this genius roundabout) really don't care about us as much.

Even cops were late for work today! WTH!?!?!? [!]

Patience is indeed a virtue. Let us all practice some, and plan accordingly. I gather we have no choice.

JMO.

[TomK]

I don't know how many use Google maps here, but you can get live traffic info, including traffic speeds, from the site. When you display the map (of Puna, for instance), go to the top left of the page, find the menu and then click on traffic. You'll get a live update of traffic speeds. I find it more useful than the Puna traffic cams page, although that's helpful as well.

I checked at 6:30pm this evening and the backup extended beyond Shower Drive. That's what, a 6-mile backup?

It uses GPS info transmitted from smartphones to track how fast traffic is moving.

[pahoated]

quote:

---

Originally posted by opihikao
"They" (the State, who planned this genius roundabout) really don't care about us as much.

---

No, you need to get your story straight.

http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/loc...ut-meeting
"The roundabout will take the place of the Highway 130 and Pahoa Village Road intersection, and is an offshoot of a larger state plan to widen the Keaau-Pahoa road and ease traffic congestion. But because of safety concerns at the intersection, the department decided to tackle that construction first."

There is still a roundabout in the plan at the top of Kahakai. It is planned for Phase III of the Kea'au-Pahoa Bypass Project.

This "offshoot" did not originate with the state. It originated with the Puna Community Development Plan in 2011. There were some people from Puna with megaphones that were blasting the state to do something about the most dangerous intersection in the known universe, NOW! The state has never done a roundabout before, so they were anxious to get it to the good people in south Puna, that they love adoringly.

This roundabout isn't even a roundabout. It is putting a huge divider between the incoming and outgoing lanes. It is preserving the old T-bone intersection by splitting it into two lanes. The only real change is people from Pahoa choosing to go to Hilo at this intersection now turn right and circle around the roundabout, rather than left like they used to do. The people heading to Pahoa will still be pulling out to the right, then coming up to the intersection with Village road. This intersection is going to be a right turn to Pahoa Village or left to old Pahoa. Meanwhile, people from Pahoa will still be going to Pahoa village, expecting the people exiting the roundabout to yield right of way. At least the collisions should be at a lower speed.

Thank the PCDP hysterical urgency for getting this work done for us.

"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Thank the PCDP hysterical urgency for getting this work done for us.

Yes, with only a little patience we could have solved this entire fiasco with a far more effective space-based solution, resulting in minimal inconvenience to Puna drivers:

Step 1 - Build the TMT. With it's giant laser, capable of destroying large cities or small sovereign nations, it should also be powerful enough to send out space messages by laser Morse Code bursts to nearby planetary systems. Once contact is made, our new alien friends will prepare for a flight to earth.

Step 2 - Everyone knows aliens cruise around the universe in flying saucers. And what else is round (hint) - - a roundabout. With minimum design modifications, sent to our alien friends in an encoded CAD software application by TMT laser light bursts, the saucer will have traffic lanes (to Hawaii DOT standards) embossed onto the top of the spacecraft.

Step 3 - The Kalapana Star Sanctuary is the closest interstellar space port to Pahoa, so should work as a landing pad and staging area for the spaceship's arrival.

Step 4 - Dig a hole in Pahoa.

Step 5 - Move saucer from Kalapana to Pahoa.

Step 6 - Place saucer into hole, connect existing roadways to saucer roundabout. Done.

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." -Annie Dillard

[knieft]

So...this morning a friend tells of a friend that went to the roundabout meeting and said, in so many words:

Trucks with 40 foot containers won't fit around the roundabout with their turning radius.

The feds decades ago said (sic) that 130 should be 4 lanes all the way to Kalapana.

All sorts of lawsuits to follow.

How accurate this is, I have no idea. Officially gossip at this point. Anybody go to the meeting last night?

Cheers,
Kirt