A long-awaited traffic project in Puna began construction Tuesday.
The Hawaii Department of Transportation State Highways Division will be installing a traffic signal at the intersection of Shower Drive, Pohaku Drive and Highway 130.
Highway 130 also will be widened in portions. The shoulder lane on the makai side of the roadway, which currently is used only during commuting hours, will become a permanent shoulder, said DOT Hawaii District Engineer Sal Panem.
A shoulder lane also will be added to the mauka side of Highway 130 at the intersection, but drivers will have to merge back onto the main roadway after passing through the signal.
According to the DOT, lane closures are not expected during normal working hours, but lanes might be shifted between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
The project is expected to be completed in nine months, weather permitting.
Hilo contractor Jas. W. Glover Ltd. was awarded the project for $3.7 million in June of last year.
The Shower and Pohaku intersection is a particularly dangerous one: Last month, a two-car crash led to Hawaii County’s 31st traffic fatality of 2016.
An online petition started shortly after that crash encourages the state and county to install more traffic signals along Highway 130. The petition has drawn 565 supporters.
“There are too many men, women, and children dying due to the factors of speed and right of way errors,” the petition reads.
State Sen. Lorraine Inouye (D-Hilo, Hamakua, Kohala, Waimea, Waikoloa, Kona), chairperson of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Energy, said Tuesday that the installation was “long overdue.”
“There’s so much that needs to be done in the entire Highway 130 area,” she said.
Puna is the fastest-growing district in the state, but that growth has placed heavy demand on the area’s infrastructure.
A roundabout at the intersection of Highway 130 and Pahoa Village Road, another area notorious for accidents, was completed last spring by the DOT.
But another planned state project to widen the entirety of Highway 130 to four lanes between Keaau and Pahoa was deferred indefinitely last July when the agency began to focus on maintenance projects as opposed to capacity projects.
Inouye said that for smaller projects such as traffic signal installation, the state and county should collaborate more.
“Unfortunately, things have been happening slowly because a lot of the improvements for funding and traffic lights are pretty much 100 percent from the state,” Inouye said. “Traffic lights normally are not provided by the federal highway program … going down towards Puna, we should at least try to get some funding in partnership from the county.
“We know that Puna needs help.”
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
