New signs for cul-de-sacs to cost $1 million
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By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer
Speeding in cul-de-sacs may sound impossible to accomplish, and now city officials say it would cost nearly $1 million to put up speed limit signs.
In September, City Councilman John DeSoto introduced a bill to lower the speed limit to 15 mph in the dead-end residential streets, reacting to concerns of Leeward residents including Steve Loring of Kapolei.
"Having a speed limit of 25 miles per hour in a cul-de-sac is much too fast," Loring wrote in a letter to the Council. "As in a lot of cases, there are cars parked on both sides of the street, and a driver could not react fast enough to stop for a child who would come from the front of a car in the street."
City Transportation Services Director Cheryl Soon took a crack at estimating how much it might cost to lower the speed limits for cul-de-sacs. In a letter to the council received last week, she said the city does not have a list of the island's cul-de-sacs, but estimates that there may be 2,500.
Soon said that it costs about $150 to install a pole with a speed limit sign. With two signs per cul-de-sacs, it would cost about $750,000 for sign installation and another $187,500 for related engineering costs.
DeSoto was surprised by the price tag. "I think we're in the wrong business. That much to put up signs?"
He said he's trying to slow people down before someone is killed. "All it's going to take is one person, one kid to get run over," he said. "To me, cost doesn't have anything to do with public safety."
The Council Transportation Committee will discuss the proposal at 1 p.m. tomorrow.
