There could be relief in the works for motorists who use a well-traveled one-lane bridge in Hilo to access Highway 11.
County Councilwoman Sue Lee Loy said Tuesday that Bill 97, which would appropriate $6 million for the county’s share of $18 million to convert the one-lane 4-Mile Creek Bridge on Kilauea Avenue just south of Haihai Street to two lanes of traffic in opposite directions, will get its first reading before the full council on Dec. 8.
At the request of the Department of Public Works, Puna Councilman Matt Kaneali‘i-Kleinfelder, the Finance Committee chair, and Council Chair Maile David waived reading of the appropriations measure before Kaneali‘i-Kleinfelder’s committee, putting it before the full council for its first of two required hearings before becoming law.
“The funding starts this choo-choo train track of probably 26 to 36 months of design work. If everything were to kind of fall in to place, we would see the groundbreaking and some real construction 24 to 36 months out,” Lee Loy said Tuesday.
State Rep. Richard Onishi, a Democrat who represents the district, has tentatively procured $12 million in state funding to cover what Public Works Director Ikaika Rodenhurst said is the project’s estimated $18 million price tag.
Both Lee Loy and Onishi said they’ve been pursuing state money for the project since 2016. Before the county receives those funds, however, the appropriation has to be approved by the state Department of Transportation and then released by Gov. David Ige, according to Onishi.
“Because it’s state funding and a county match, if there’s a match, generally departments and agencies, if they have matching funds, generally will not put a hold on the project,” Onishi said. “So we’re hopeful the county’s going to appropriate the funding for their portion … and the department will see fit to support the project and the governor will be requested to release the money.”
This isn’t the first time, however, it appeared the project would receive state funding to go forward, Onishi said.
“We actually got $13 million in 2017 for the replacement of the bridge, to make it two lanes — and to make improvements to that Haihai-Kilauea intersection,” he said. “And, unfortunately, the state Department of Transportation — although this would be a completely county project — decided they were not going to move forward with the project. So that money lapsed in 2020.”
This year, both state and county coffers have been bolstered by federal coronavirus relief funds — although it’s unclear whether those will be tapped for this project.
According to the county’s appropriation bill, the county’s $6 million will be provided by “general obligation bonds, capital projects fund … and/or other sources,” while the state’s $12 million will be from “state grants receivable.”
According to a background document attached to the legislation, the century-old, one-lane bridge “is a historical bridge, and its historic features will be retained while modernizing and implementing the necessary structural and safety improvements.”
Also included in the project are hydrologic and hydraulic studies of the creek’s channel to ensure the bridge’s conveyance capacity, and a traffic study of the Kilauea Avenue and Haihai Street intersection “to determine what improvements will be needed to implemented to accommodate the proposed new two-lane bridge.”
Asked if a traffic signal will be needed at the intersection, Rodenhurst replied, “I’m not ruling it out. It’s definitely a possibility. We’ll definitely have to do a traffic study. It’ll be important to do this right.”
“I think this project is going to be really important and impactful for the community,” he continued. “I know this bridge can be really troublesome at times and lead to traffic backups, especially since it’s a one-way alternating bridge. And, so, we’re going to make sure we get the right capacity for the traffic it encounters, as well as making sure we have enough room for our emergency services to get through, as well.”
Should the project receive funding to go forward, it will require environmental review.
Lee Loy said she and Onishi “will be watching the execution of this project closely.”
“We have to be well-organized with contracts for this type of hard infrastructure and get the jobs done on time and on budget,” she said.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.