Posted on: Thursday, June 12, 2003

Hawai'i parks to get $3.6 million in grants

Associated Press

Hawai'i will receive $3.6 million from a federal land grant program to improve facilities at the state's national parks and other public places, U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye announced yesterday.

Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park will receive $954,000, the largest single grant, to build acceleration and deceleration lanes and landscaped islands to channel traffic and widen shoulders on Highway 11.

The park also will get $279,997 to apply friction-course paving to increase skid resistance on Chain of Craters Road and $82,507 to create preliminary impact assessments for Crater Rim Drive.

Inouye, D-Hawai'i, said the money was earmarked from the Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration Public Lands grant program.

"The funds that the federal government will release are vital for upgrading the infrastructure that benefits Hawai'i's residents and visitors," Inouye said in a statement.

The Federal Highway Administration did not immediately have information on how other states fared in the appropriations.

The USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor will receive $850,000 to upgrade the memorial's parking lot pavement and improve existing drainage.

The Kealia Pond Wildlife Refuge on Maui will receive $750,000 to create a greenbelt and footbridge.

More than $200,000 each was allotted to improvements at Kapunahala Stream in Kane'ohe, Hihimanu Street in Waimanalo and Maui's Haleakala National Park.

The Kaloko-Honokohau National Historic Park near Kailua on the Big Island got $163,000 for road upgrades and Kakahai'a National Wildlife Refuge on Moloka'i received $100,000 for drainage improvements.