Wai'anae will get alternate road links
| • | Map of the planned road |
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Leeward O'ahu Writer
The Leeward Coast just got a lot closer to some welcome relief from a four-lane headache that has plagued the area for decades.
Last night residents learned that construction on an emergency alternate to Farrington Highway could be just months away. If all goes according to plan, motorists could be driving some parts of the road within a year, said city transportation director Cheryl Soon at a community meeting in Nanakuli.
"One of the beauties of all this is that because the access road is a series of sections, once a section is done it can be used," Soon said before the meeting. "I would say that by this time next year some of the sections might be ready for use."
Following an environmental assessment, bids are to be solicited. Construction could begin as early as September.
The idea behind the proposed $9 million secondary access road is providing an escape route when Farrington Highway, the only road access to the Wai'anae Coast, is closed. Such shutdowns have dire effects on traffic and the functioning of the entire region.
In the past few years, emergencies ranging from water main breaks to a police standoff with an armed man have shut down Farrington for hours and led to monumental traffic jams that stranded motorists for miles in either direction.
The emergency access road will run continuously from Nanakuli to Makaha. It will be a circuitous route, completed primarily by linking existing back roads.
"We might take an existing road in a section and improve it or widen it" said Soon. "Or in places where there is no connection, we'd have to build one.
"Wherever we were improving or adding a new section, we asked the community if they wanted us to make it permanent, to be used all the time, or if they want us to construct it in a way that it could only be used in case of an emergency."
Soon said residents in some sections prefer an emergency route, while others like the idea of a permanent access road, so both types exist along the route.
Last night's meeting at the Nanakuli High School cafeteria — the fourth since discussion of the project began in September 2000 — was to answer residents' questions regarding what Soon called the "one last hoop to jump through, and that's the environmental assessment."
The report has been completed and circulated, and was outlined for residents, who have until Feb. 22 to file a public comment.
"We've received a remarkable degree of consensus" on the project, Soon said. Last night, several residents said the road isn't the perfect solution, but thanked city officials for coming up with something.
Soon said $5 million budgeted by the mayor and City Council last year should be enough to complete the work from Nanakuli to Ma'ili. The entire road should take about two years to finish, said David Bills, senior vice president for Gray Hong Bills Nojima & Associates, consulting engineers.
"This is not a second access road out of the district," said Cynthia Rezentes, chairwoman of the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board. "I think most people understand that."
Despite general agreement on the road, Rezentes said people along the Leeward Coast remain split about whether the district also should pursue construction of an alternative highway.
Some fear that a second, mountainside highway parallel to Farrington might invite too much development, Rezentes said.
State studies have estimated the cost of building an additional road to the coast at $365 million to $500 million, not including the cost of purchasing public and private lands.
Correction: David Bills is senior vice president for Gray Hong Bills Nojima & Associates Inc. His name was spelled incorrectly in an earlier version of this story because of an editor’s error.
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