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Just a reminder for Puna folks about the Dept. of Transportation STIP meetings tonight (5/27) at 6 p.m. at Pahoa Community Center and same time tomorrow night at Hilo's State Bldg.
Draft STIP info can be found at http://hidot.hawaii.gov/highways/other/o...inks/stip/
STIP is the list where priorities are listed for state AND FEDERAL funding of Hawaii's thoroughfares and Puna really needs to tell the state that we need a makai alternate to Hwy 130, especially in light of the ongoing volcanic activity! Hope to see you there.....
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Twas good to see where DOT says they are headed.
And a real shocker to hear Mr Taka****a repeating the same B.S. as always.
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Well, folks, the DOT meeting in Pahoa Monday night was enlightening, to say the least. We were informed that the current construction between the Keaau transfer station and Shower Drive is for commuter-hour shoulders only and that those lanes will merge just the Keaau side of Shower Drive, not AT Shower Drive. And it was confirmed that the Shower Drive stoplight has not yet gotten out of the DOT's design phase!
Sen. Ruderman urged the DOT to make sure the merge lanes go all the way to Shower Drive and that the intersection include turn lanes! But the DOT said that is NOT in the design.
The DOT needs a complete overhaul!
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the problem with that design is it just moves the bottleneck from keaau to shower drive. what a joke. the only thing that will come close to a proper solution is a 4 lane highway between keaau and pahoa. the majority of traffic on that road is coming from hilo/keaau to
1. HPP/Orchidland/Ainaloa
2. Pahoa
3. Beyond
and the 4 lane would alleviate congestion due to 1 and 2. Traffic going beyond that is currently handled by the existing roads.
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I thought we already had a commuter hour lane going into keaau from shower?
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They're just reinforcing the Keaau-bound lane and creating a Pahoa-bound shoulder lane for afternoon commuter traffic.
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so now the bottle neck will move to shower where there is no light!
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They really only had the same-ole, same-ole story, not even the illustrations for the Keaau-Pahoa corridor that they've showed us in the past. No real update on that.
The public is instructed to label their priorities for the STIP projects for the list of 2015-2018 Big Island highway projects as seen on the DOT Excel file at:
http://hidot.hawaii.gov/highways/other/o...inks/stip/
and to email your response to hwy.stip.projects@hawaii.gov by Monday, June 16
The two Puna projects are HS14 and HS15, listed on Pg. 3. You can read their cusory descriptions there (not much to read, really). And you can rank all Big Island projects on the far right column in priority high, medium, and low.
Good luck! I wonder when Take****a, state DOT highway divisions chief, is due to retire. Not soon enough, IMHO...
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Interesting how the Kona side gets approvals faster than the Puna side, as contracts have been awarded for the rebuild of Mamanaloa Hwy between Haleki'i St to Napoopoo Junction, and the Kaiminani Dr phase II is almost there as well, but I guess it's "business as usual". Or is it that the areas of major improvement follow the Lava Zone map? Any input Aaron?
Are you a human being, or a human doing?
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The Mamalahoa Highway bypass (between Halekii Street and Napoopoo Junction) is being funded by Oceanside 1250 and Oceanside's bonding company. The county is using those funds to construct a new 2.07 mile
highway segment.
As far as the Kaiminani Drive Phase 2 rehabilitation. The county is using FHWA Federal Highway aid funds, which is covering 80% of cost. The condition of this roadway is in really bad shape, so I'm pleased this project is moving forward.
