Nu'uanu sign work resumes
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
Work has started again on the Nu'uanu gateway signs after months of inactivity, and the project is now expected to be completed by the end of January, according to the city.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
The city has been criticized over the cost of the signs, estimated at $576,000, during a time of belt tightening, and the project had been at a standstill since July.
A crew from Fred Lau Hawaiian Landscaping unloads one of 17 palm trees that are part of landscaping around the new Nu'uanu neighborhood sign at Wyllie Street. Recent heavy rains had slowed work on the signs.
Ben Lee, city managing director, said progress was delayed when the cast nameplates were rejected by the project manager and had to be replaced. Recent heavy rains further slowed the work, Lee said.
Crews planted 17 coconut palm trees at the Wyllie Street monument yesterday and will soon be planting ground cover and a hedge, Lee said. The Waokanaka Street monument will have a larger shade tree and ground cover.
The two monuments being built at either end of Nu'uanu Valley are not the simple signs on a post announcing you are entering a specific community. They have been described as looking like a heiau or the entrance to a mausoleum and are the most expensive of community identification signs in various stages of development in more than a dozen neighborhoods across O'ahu.
The city says the signs are projects that the communities asked for through their vision teams and that they do far more than just announce the town's name, primarily by letting drivers know they're entering a residential area and should slow down.
Nu'uanu resident Wesley Chun worked with the Pali Highway Safety Task Force in 1999, which looked at ways to make the busy highway safer after several pedestrians were hit by cars.
Chun said the signs are part of the larger plan to slow traffic including the now-infamous rumble strips that were removed by the state in October, new brightly colored pedestrian crossing signs, more visible crosswalks and a new street light at Jack Lane.
Chun said combining all these efforts with the new community signs and the final phase, which will add more trees along the median strip between Wyllie and Waokanaka Street next year, will slow traffic and is much cheaper than redesigning the highway.
"We looked at other options for making the road safer, but they were even more expensive," Chun said. "This was a compromise to be used all together and be fiscally responsible."
Lee said criticism of the signs' cost is unfair.
"The administration does not spend one cent that is not approved by the City Council through the budget process," Lee said. "The city, the vision team, and then-City Councilman Jon Yoshimura all supported the project."
Current City Councilman Rod Tam is not so supportive.
"It's embarrassing," Tam said. "The visibility will be reduced with the landscaping. The city and state are going to be sued when there is an accident. It is very poor planning and overuse of city funds."
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
