Feds upset at the glacial pace of Hawaiian road co

[Kapoho Joe]

Hundreds of millions just sitting because our state is too inept to use them!

EXCLUSIVE: Feds critical of Hawaii's $820 million highway project backlog,

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/28948...ct-backlog

[kalakoa]

Isn't this the same State that "can't do that because no money"?

Feds should rescind the grants, or maybe reassign them to the counties.

[Aaron S]

Queen Kaahumanu Highway widening phase 2

2008-2010 Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company (Kiewit Pacific Company (now Kiewit Infrastructure-West) protested once) protested three times. Goodfellow Brothers was awarded the project the project all three times.

The state decided to advertise the project for a third time and litigate the Office of Administrative Hearings decision in 2009. The courts upheld the OAH's ruling, which HDOT has appealed to the Hawaii Intermediate Court of
Appeals in 2014 (#1CC091832).

July 2010 HDOT gives Goodfellow Brothers the notice to proceed to start on the highway design.

2011-2013 New archaeological features are found near the highway right of way; National Park Service intervenes and requests a Section 106 consultation regarding this project. Several Native Hawaiian Organizations request to be consulted about this project in late 2011 also.

The Section 106 process drags on for almost 3 years. It got so contentious the NHOs brought in the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation for a possible lawsuit in mid-2013.

2014-2015 FHWA/HDOT finalized the memorandum of agreement;
construction may start in the fall of2015

[pahoated]

This backlog is from Lingle and Abercrombie administrations. DOT reports to the Governor and he gives the sign off for state highway work to commence. Ige is just having it dumped into his lap and from the feds view, it is a state problem, not the accumulation of previous administration thumb-twiddling. It also seems if anybody tries to move a shovel full of dirt around here, there are 20 sue-happy clowns in the background saying they are being harmed by it or the environment is threatened by it or that it makes fish develop tumors. Never saw such a sue-happy place.

"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"

[kalakoa]

Never saw such a sue-happy place.

Again: the Feds can simply rescind the grants in favor of other places that are willing to spend the money on actual projects instead of lawsuits and settlements (the Queen K widening includes $800K for UH).

While we're at it, let's move the College of Pharmacy to Oahu and send the TMT to Chile.

The NIMBYs want zero development ... let's see if they're happy with getting it.

[Kapoho Joe]

I wonder if the nimbys really understand the end game of their tactics on a small island like ours.

[kalakoa]

I wonder if the nimbys really understand the end game of their tactics

NIMBYs don't care about other people's problems.

I believe most NIMBYs are retired and collecting benefits -- holding down a job would leave precious little time to wage the war -- so they don't need any kind of economic development, because they already have theirs.

[Rob Tucker]

We had an appalling situation a few years ago where the state, with the county's help, was insisting that HAAS spend $1 million on a traffic light and road widening on Hwy 130 as a condition of the Special Use Permit. To add insult to injury our own planning director at the time, Bobbie Jean, was delivering the new along with insistence that the work be completed within six months. When, in the history of Hawaii had a highway project been conceived and completed within six months? A curse on both their houses.

Luckily the Planning Commission rejected such stupidity.

Here's the kicker and how this relates...

Not long after this fiasco the Feds published a list of states at risk of losing funds for lack of action. Hawaii DOT was at the top of the list. At the precise moment HDOT was making outrageous demands of HAAS they were sitting on $6Mof Fed money specifically intended for improving intersections at or near schools.

The incompetence and ill intent of our county and state governments are not to be under estimated.

[mmbvd7]

Im curious how much of these funds would go to our county, and of those funds, how much earmarked for Puna (that is if these funds actually get to be used)?

As far as this information, all I can say is...wow.


Best wishes

[Rob Tucker]

Those Federal dollars were going nowhere... HDOT was facing losing them for lack if use.