Roadwork ready to begin on Kona shortcut
By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
KEALAKEKUA, Hawai'i — After 30 years of discussion, design and disappointment, work is about to start on a $25 million bypass route from Keauhou to Kealakekua and Captain Cook.
The cost will be paid by 1250 Oceanside Partners, developer of the Hokuli'a luxury housing and golf project. In a unique agreement, former Mayor Steve Yamashiro required the developer, a partnership between Japan Airlines and Arizona investor Lyle Anderson, to post a bond to ensure that the highway project would be done without taxpayer cost.
Although the 730-home Hokuli'a project has been at the center of recent controversy over damage to Native Hawaiian burials and coastal runoff, the 5-mile roadway generally is seen as long-awaited relief to growing traffic congestion in the Kona region.
The bypass is expected to cut the north-south commuting time in half.
Mayor Harry Kim has described the commuting time along the existing route from Keauhou to Kealakekua town as unacceptable. The state Highways Division had prepared designs for a bypass road years ago, but never followed through. The highway project often became ensnared in politics.
Rick Humphreys, president and general manager of 1250 Oceanside Partners, said he believes that the majority of Kona motorists want the new road.
But along with support for a bypass, there are fears the benefits will be short-lived since plans call for only two lanes, not four. Some predict it will be a matter of only two or three years before traffic jams pose a problem again.
Ann Peterson, chairwoman of the Kona Traffic Safety Committee, said the district needs roads everywhere. "Any road will help diminish the problem," she said.
There are also concerns that the bypass will open up areas to further development.
Jim Medeiros of the Protect Keopuka 'Ohana, which is challenging 1250 Oceanside Partners in court over its handling of Native Hawaiian burials, said he and others believe the new road, like the Hokuli'a subdivision, is likely to upset numerous cultural sites.
Construction is expected to start next month. 1250 Oceanside Partners has hired Kiewit Pacific Co. to build the road that under the county agreement must be finished by 2005. Humphreys said it will not take that long.
"The sooner the better" he said.
Though just initially two lanes wide, there will be rights of way for four lanes and a biking and jogging path on both sides of the road.
The only intersection will be midway long the route at the Haleki'i Street extension that will bring traffic into Hokuli'a.
