Vital roadwork left off budget
By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Central O'ahu Writer
PEARL CITY — A $50 million state project that would have widened a section of the H-1 freeway to alleviate rush-hour gridlock heading toward fast-developing Central and Leeward O'ahu is on hold for at least two years after legislators failed to include the work in the state budget.
In approving the annual state budget yesterday, the Legislature did not allocate $2.5 million as part of the state's share of the H-1 widening, which the Department of Transportation considers among O'ahu's most critical road needs.
Construction was set to begin in September on a project that would have widened 1.25 miles of the freeway viaduct in the 'ewa-bound direction from five to six lanes, from the Kaonohi Overpass to the Pearl City off-ramp. The project was to help relieve the bottleneck of traffic merging from the H-1 and Moanalua freeways — approximately 108,000 vehicles each day.
Area legislators expressed frustration over the budget omission.
"It's very, very unfortunate what happened, because this project affects all of Central, Leeward O'ahu, along with drivers heading to the North Shore," said Senate Transportation Committee chairman Cal Kawamoto, D-19th (Waipahu, Pearl City). "If they want to keep developing out here, we need this type of project to help with traffic."
Kawamoto voted in support of the state budget, but with reservations because of the omission.
Although it's unclear how the item was omitted, one thing is certain: Construction won't begin now until mid-2004 at the earliest, and only if money is provided during next year's legislative session, according to state transportation director Brian Minaai.
To make way for the scheduled construction, seven of 10 affected Waimalu households below the freeway already have been moved. Nineteen more households were to have been moved temporarily over the next couple of months, but Minaai said that probably will be delayed.
"This one was in our top five road projects for O'ahu," Minaai said. "I can't find a reason why it was deleted, or who initiated the deletion. I would like to address that person's concerns over the interim."
Minaai said the state already had committed $5 million in 2000 to the H-1 project, with matching federal money of $20 million. The department needed $2.5 million more to match about $22.5 million in federal dollars to pay for the rest of the project. Minaai said the federal contribution is not in danger of lapsing at the moment.
"We had to have this one fully funded, because you're not only widening a freeway, you're pretty much widening a bridge," Minaai said. "That's not something that can be done halfway."
The project was to continue the widening of H-1 to six lanes done in 1998 from the Halawa Heights Road Overpass to Kaonohi Street Overpass. While construction on that project tormented motorists, the widening did relieve the traffic bottleneck.
State Rep. K. Mark Takai, D-34th (Waimalu, Newtown, Pearl City), said he hadn't gotten a straight answer from House leadership on why the budget item was omitted.
House Finance Committee chairman Dwight Takamine, D-1st (Hamakua, N. Kohala), claims neither the House nor Senate placed the project in their version of the state budget.
"Usually when it comes up to conference committee, one side will bring it up if the other side doesn't have the item on its project list," Takamine said. "Neither side had it, so the issue never came up."
Takai was upset for those who had relocated to make way for the work.
"Some of my constituents already had to move because of this project, and now it's all going to be delayed," Takai said.
"I am really shocked at this. This was a high-priority DOT project," said Pearl City Neighborhood Board Chairman Albert Fukushima, who endures the afternoon gridlock each day on his way home. "With the area population growing, I don't know what will happen."
Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
