Not a solution
Not a solution
The state Department of Transportation’s plan to re-stripe Highway 130 into four lanes is not going to solve lower Puna’s transportation problems. The people living there should be aware of a few things if the four lanes happen, besides the fact we would have no bike lanes or adequate side shoulders (not that we do now, anyway).
The phone poles running on both sides of Highway 130 are only rated Category 1 hurricane strength. The DOT is expecting the population of lower Puna to evacuate on Highway 130, which will be impassible if something happens such as a hurricane or lava flow, including funneling the 10,000 of us through that one-lane matchbox roundabout to get out of Pahoa.
There is supposed to be an emergency access road connecting Nanawale to Hawaiian Beaches, but now the sign is gone, leaving no way to notify people needing to escape in an emergency, such as a hurricane, fire, lava flow or other natural or man-made disaster.
Lower Puna needs a secondary access road from populous Nanawale through Hawaiian Beaches/Shores to Makuu and again from Shower to Hilo, which even would alleviate a huge percentage of people needing to commute through Pahoa, on Highway 130 or even through Keaau, thus totally negating the need for four lanes on Highway 130.
Apologies to Hawaiian Paradise Park that the Hawaii County planners did not think about what they were doing when they approved your giant subdivision with no way through for residents living below you. The planners in charge envision keeping us as a huge hive of captive workers commuting to Hilo for work and our daily bread. They purposefully refuse to give enough roads, water or sewers.
In closing, if some of us could figure out how to get an injunction on all DOT projects until Puna gets its second road, we’d be all over it.
Sara Steiner
Pahoa
Time to relocate?
The recent chlorine leak incident at BEI Hawaii could have been a lot worse than what recently took place there. Just imagine if fire broke out at this site and the number of surrounding residents who could have succumbed to its flames and fumes.
Perhaps it is time for BEI Hawaii to relocate to a more industrialized area, such as Railroad Avenue, where many other businesses store and use hazardous chemical products, far away from residential homes, as compared to BEI Hawaii’s current location.
Rick LaMontagne
Hilo