The state Department of Transportation will extend four lanes on Highway 130 to Shower Drive over the next month as it restripes a 2-mile stretch of pavement.
The state Department of Transportation will extend four lanes on Highway 130 to Shower Drive over the next month as it restripes a 2-mile stretch of pavement.
The restriping, which will begin Saturday, will provide four travel lanes around the clock from essentially Keaau to Hawaiian Paradise Park, though with narrower lanes and shoulders. The project will replace the shoulder lanes that are available during rush hour.
DOT spokeswoman Shelly Kunishige said the work should be done by the end of November. That’s about when the department also anticipates intersection improvements at Shower Drive to be completed, she said.
Meanwhile, DOT is applying for $25 million in federal grants to expedite other improvements to the congested thoroughfare.
The funding would support adding traffic signals or roundabouts where the highway intersects with Kaloli Drive, Orchidland Drive, Makuu Drive and Ainaloa Drive, with roundabouts being the preferred option, according to an email distributed by county and state officials asking for letters in support of the grant application.
Additionally, the funds would be used for “restricted movements and median treatments” at 29th Avenue, Pohaku Place, Puakalo Drive, Pohaku Circle, Aulii Street and Ilima Street. Between Shower and Ainaloa drives, multiuse shoulders would be added.
“(Highway) 130 provides the connection between the largest, most economically challenged, and fastest growing community in the state of Hawaii,” an attachment on the email said.
The 3.5 miles of highway where these improvements would occur has three of the five top crash locations on Hawaii Island, it said.
Kunishige said in a separate email that DOT expects to know if it will receive the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, funds in about three to four months.
“The receipt of this funding would allow (DOT) to start additional improvements to Keaau-Pahoa Road within two years,” she said.
“These improvements would be completed within the next five years. If the TIGER grant funding is not received, (DOT) will phase the planned Keaau-Pahoa Road improvements over a longer term period and will consider low cost alternatives.”
The grant would be used in addition to $40 million added to the state’s capital budget for the highway.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.