By ERIN MILLER
Stephens Media
Consultant Ron Terry gave a conservative estimate of 2019 for the state Department of Transportation to fund, design and build a Saddle Road extension. The extension, which has been planned since at least 1999, would run from Mamalahoa Highway to the intersection of Waikoloa Beach Drive and Queen Kaahumanu Highway.
“I won’t call this best case scenario, because it could be quicker,” Geometrician Associates’ Terry told about 50 people at a scoping meeting at Waikoloa Elementary School Thursday evening. “This is conservative, safe, if money arrives.”
The state does not have funding for the project, although DOT Deputy Director for capital projects Jadine Urasaki said the extension is on the State Transportation Improvement Project list.
The state doesn’t have the land yet, either, Terry said, and most of the land through which any of the three alternatives run is privately owned.
One of the three alignments doesn’t touch Waikoloa Road at all, Terry said. One has a small intersection with the road and the final option would replace about two miles of the road, about one mile makai of Waikoloa.
None of the alignments actually enter the village, Terry said.
The three options are all roughly 10 miles long.
The alignment that doesn’t use any of Waikoloa Road could begin construction three to four months more quickly, Terry said, although it doesn’t provide any direct route for Waikoloa Village residents to easily access the road.
At least one meeting attendee, during an informal question and answer session prior to formal testimony, asked why Terry considered that route without the access to the town.
“We were requested by certain members of the community who said they didn’t want that, Terry said. “We thought it’s simple, it’s direct, it satisfies what at least some people want, let’s study it.”
Having alternate routes is good, too, to provide backup options if archaeological surveys reveal lava tubes with burials, he added.
Saddle Road Task Force member Walter Kunitake said planners started with many more alternatives nearly two decades ago when they first discussed the extension. Terry said he first held a community meeting on the extension in 1999.
A majority of the comments focused on the need to have at least 8-foot-wide shoulders to accommodate bicyclists. John Simmerman, of People’s Advocacy for Trails Hawaii, said 12-foot-wide lanes would be even better if the state sets a 55 mph speed limit on sections of the road.
Terry said people may comment on the extension’s Environmental Impact Statement Preparation Notice through June 22.
He said he expected to publish the draft EIS in October, with a public hearing in November.
If that process moves smoothly, the final EIS could be published February 2013, with another public hearing in March 2013. Design could begin in 2014, followed by construction in 2017, he said.
Email Erin Miller at emiller@westhawaiitoday.com.
