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Managed growth is like the price of oil. Notice how HELCO is divesting themselves of alternative energy projects because they "aren't competitive"? The same can be said of the inadequate road system: it mostly works today, no problem. What happens when the population increases by 20% and transit isn't upgraded to match?
Look at the number of open building permits in HPP and tell me how the growth isn't happening, there's no need to plan for the future...
Don't point to the PCDP, it's not a planning document.
As a practical example, notice what happens when a single accident closes the highway for any length of time: traffic backs up for miles. There is no alternative route. It's one thing for someone's commute to take an extra few hours; it's quite another to have no emergency response because the only road is blocked.
People seem remarkably unconcerned with the situation. Maybe I should get me some of whatever they're smoking.
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(Stainback) stops at Pana'ewa, which is 1000 ft from the start of Kilauea Ave.
Traversing that last 1000 feet requires that you go back out to Highway 11, right back to "single point of failure".
If Stainback actually connected to a road in Hilo, it would then qualify as an "alternative route".
Again, none of this is actually a "problem", provided that the Puna population doesn't grow, and there's no incidents blocking the "one road in or out".
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Seriously kalakoa? You could simply cross 11 and take Lama or Mamaki to Awa / Railroad. That is of course unless the disaster is along that exact 1000 ft of road then we're all doomed.
In general, this isn't Maine - you can almost always get there from here (thanks often to the numerous "non-conforming" subdivision roads).
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So there's no problems with growth management in Puna?
That should save me lots of time.
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They could just put a "right turn only" sign coming out of the business park. If that doesn't fix the problem, they could close the left turn option into it from the Hilo-bound lanes.
If this was the final solution, I'm sure the people who work / transit the park would prefer that nobody ever brought the adding-a-traffic-light option to the table. But it would also be effective, cost almost nothing, and solve all of the safety problems. I think this type of traffic control was in use even before the ancient Romans invented the roundabout.
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They could just put a "right turn only" sign coming out of the business park.
Some subdivision roads will be "right in/right out" onto 130 as part of the eventual widening project, so this is definitely something State knows how to do.
Along similar lines, "they" could simply extend some of the roads between the biz park and Panaewa, just like the Connectivity Plan proposal that came out of PCDP.
That is of course unless the disaster is along that exact 1000 ft of road
Like last night's accident? What a coincidence! Shut down the only highway out of Hilo, added a couple of hours to people's commute...
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I think I passed whatever disaster caused the highway closure before it happened. There was a firetruck on the side of the road with its lights on and a bunch of people standing around looking perplexed, but no activity. I don't remember exactly where it was. Was the closure before the point where you can get off the highway and take Kulani to the back way to the acres? That's the only alternate route I'm aware of other than driving completely around the island through Ka'u and Volcano.
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Was the closure before the point where you can get off the highway and take Kulani
The accident was at 11 and Lama. It would be possible (if Railroad was open, and you knew in advance) to take Mamaki across to Stainback.
As far as "alternative connectivity" goes, it would only take about 2 miles of new road to create a workable bypass from upper Puna to Hilo.
1. Access from Hilo to Stainback without crossing 11: Hale Manu Dr (off Stainback) to Hale Manu Dr (off Kilauea): ~2000 feet, through State land, apparently forest (no houses or farms).
2. Connecting the Shipman biz park to Stainback: Kalara St to Kealakai: ~3000 feet. Part Shipman, part State, but again, uncut forest, no houses or farms.
3. Connecting the Shipman biz park to Keaau: Kalara St to Keaau-Pahoa Rd: about a mile as the crow flies, all through undeveloped Shipman land.
At $1M/mile, this connectivity would cost less than Shipman's proposed traffic signal.
4. Railroad Ave from Milo St to the edge of HPP is a little under 3.5 miles, assuming that Shipman and HPP would allow such a thing to happen.
At $1M/mile, all the above would cost about as much as a roundabout.
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That is of course unless the disaster is along that exact 1000 ft of road then we're all doomed
Like last night's accident? What a coincidence! Shut down the only highway out of Hilo, added a couple of hours to people's commute...
That is crazy! It's almost like someone went to some extraordinary lengths during their trip to Hilo in order to win an argument...
The idea of a mauka connector is a good one. Making Railroad drivable to Milo would be even more trivial. And yet neither have a bill being sponsored. Certain people's ideas simply must be better (even if more costly, self-serving, and disruptive)
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Of course, there IS an alternate route to Puna already in place:
you just go over Saddle Road to Kona, then down and around through Naalehu, up over the pass through Volcano.
If you're continuing to lower Puna, you have two options from there; Hwy 11 to 130 or take the emergency bypass through Hawaiian Acres (please keep to the 25mph speed limit) and down to Orchidland.
Easy peasy, only takes what, 6 hours?
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