Wailupe turnoff lane to be extended
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Bureau
WAILUPE — After four years of asking, residents of the Wailupe subdivision are finally getting a longer left-turn lane into their community.
For residents of the 110 homes in the community, it will mean safer waiting while traffic clears, said Ed Gall, a Wailupe Peninsula resident and member of the Kuli'ou'ou-Kalani Iki Neighborhood Board.
The left-turn holding lane, near the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses on the corner of West Hind Drive and Kalaniana'ole Highway, allows U-turns. The queue of waiting cars gets longer when the church lets out, Gall said.
"The lane holds about two or three cars, but if you're the fourth or fifth one you're sticking out and the oncoming traffic is going a lot faster than the posted 35 mph," Gall said. "It's been a concern for a long time.
"Everyone here has been behind the effort."
The state Department of Transportation plans to lengthen the lane by 60 feet — about three car lengths. The work will be done when the state begins repaving Kalaniana'ole Highway after it finishes the water main replacement project, now in its second phase. Work began in April on the $6 million replacement project that spans from 'Ainakoa Avenue to West Hind Drive.
The second phase includes the replacement of a 16-inch water main from Kaimoku Street to West Hind Drive, a three-quarter-mile stretch.
The entire project is expected to take about two years to replace the water mains, repave the road and replace guardrails.
The community thought the left-turn problem had been solved when the state completed work on the widening of Kalaniana'ole Highway in 1995, but somehow the lane didn't get lengthened, said Rep. Bertha Leong, R-16th ('Aina Haina, Hawai'i Kai).
Three palm trees and a shower tree in the area will have to be moved, she said. The state has assured the community that those trees will be replanted in a neighboring park or along the makai side of the road, Leong said.
"That's all we wanted is space for more cars," Leong said. "This way people can wait there safely."
Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.
