honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Thursday, November 22, 2001

Traffic cones frustrate 'Ainakoa residents

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer

Every morning drivers leaving this ridge community are backed up for blocks while they try to turn right onto the highway.

They can't go straight or turn left — both directions are coned off. The intersection is configured this way so that traffic flows freely on Kalaniana'ole Highway heading west. The wait is particularly bad for the more than 2,000 residents of this area when a bus tries to merge onto Kalaniana'ole.

Here in this neighborhood, from the top of Wai'alae Nui Ridge to the bottom where the homes were built in the early 1950s, everyone must come down 'Ainakoa Avenue, the last intersection before the freeway begins.

Recently, Rep. Barbara Marumoto, R-17th (Kahala, Wai'alae Iki), wrote to the state Department of Transportation requesting that the cones be removed to enable more cars to make turns.

She is still waiting for an answer from transportation officials, she said.

"The residents want to get rid of the cones so they can get out," Marumoto said.

Each morning more than 6,000 cars drive along Kalaniana'ole Highway past the intersection with 'Ainakoa Avenue, she said.

Savvy drivers use alternate routes now, but that forces congestion onto side streets, she said.

Gerri Digmon, a Malia Street resident, sees her quiet street turn noisy and congested every morning as motorists cut through her neighborhood to get to Kahala or to turn around and go east.

"There's a real problem with that area," Marumoto said.

Digmon, a member of the Wai'alae Kahala Neighborhood Board, said she is particularly concerned about the lower reaches of 'Ainakoa, particularly Malia Street because a senior citizens center is being proposed on the grounds of Star of the Sea School.

Kahala Senior Living Inc., a not-for-profit corporation, plans to build Kahala Nui, with 250 independent living suites, 41 assisted living suites, 21 memory support Alzheimer's suites and 60 nursing beds on 7.9 acres on the 'ewa side of the school grounds.

Construction is expected to begin next year. At several board meetings the corporation has appeared before the members of the community to present its traffic plan.

Because it is unresolved in some residents' minds, the board's citizen traffic committee has agreed to take up the Malia Street traffic concerns at its next meeting in January.