Haleakala road project to start

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau

A plan to widen Haleakala Highway from three lanes to four that has been on the drawing boards for the better part of a decade appears to be moving forward finally — at least partially.

The state Department of Transportation is accepting bids from contractors on the first milelong section of the project, estimated to cost from $3 million to $6 million.

Officials said first-phase construction, which will start at its intersection with Hana Highway, could be completed as soon as January 2004.

The rest of the 5 1/2-mile project to the Pukalani Bypass is being designed and work is at least a couple of years away, officials said.

Ferdinand "Fred'' Cajigal, Maui District engineer for the state Highways Division, said completing the overall $20 million project in phases became more feasible after previous attempts to obtain money for the full project were thwarted.

In addition, he said, the project's first phase will put an end to afternoon rush-hour contraflow measures, resulting in savings of more than $200,000 a year.

Maui residents were calling for construction of a fourth lane as soon as the mauka-bound third lane was installed in the early 1990s. Original plans called for four lanes, but a lack of money diminished the project's size. Contraflow efforts were instituted to help alleviate morning rush-hour traffic.

The federal government is already signed on to pay for 80 percent of the first-phase highway construction. State officials previously purchased right-of-way property from Alexander & Baldwin's Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., which grows sugar cane along that stretch of the highway.

Construction will include a 36-foot grassed median, drainage, traffic signals and relocation of HC&S electrical facilities, officials said.