Leeward emergency road must be kept

If the proposal for a secondary access road for the Wai'anae Coast did not make the final priority list of an O'ahu transportation planning group, it may be because it was not properly defined.

The Wai'anae road was one of many projects being considered by the O'ahu Metropolitan Planning Organization's Year 2025 master plan.

This plan is an important step in obtaining federal funding for local transportation projects.

The plan ranges from the city's proposed $889.1 million Bus Rapid Transit System to a $20 million commuter ferry.

But it does not include, at least as a matter of top priority, a second access road into Wai'anae. This has long been pushed by residents of the Leeward Coast who are effectively trapped whenever the existing Farrington Highway access route is blocked.

The OMPO plan does endorse the city's far more modest emergency access route, which would patch together a secondary route using existing back roads and temporary connections. But it puts on the back burner a more comprehensive second route into and out of the Leeward Coast.

Purely as a transportation decision, this might make sense. There are other projects that might do more for the overall transportation needs of the island of O'ahu.

But as a health and safety matter, the second Wai'anae route takes on much greater magnitude. Imagine a tsunami striking the Leeward Coast and no effective way to escape.

If the OMPO transportation-focused planning process cannot make room for this project, then it is up to state and city officials to find another way to make it happen.