DOT creates new office for planning

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer

The state Transportation Department hopes to receive more community input and head off troubling complaints and project delays by establishing a new planning division, DOT Director Rod Haraga said.

The new division will coordinate and assume many of the planning responsibilities now carried out separately under DOT's harbors, highways and airports divisions, Haraga said.

"Right now we've got three different divisions doing things three different ways," Haraga said Friday. "This will get them all operating in the same way."

The separate planning offices have been the target of criticism in previous state audits of the department.

A 1996 audit, for instance, said poor planning was responsible for the cancellation of many airport projects, resulting in the payment of more than $100 million to contractors "with no apparent benefit to the public." Several recent projects have bogged down as they neared the implementation stage because of federal or county concerns.

The new division will seek more community input and work more closely with county officials during the early stages of statewide planning, said Julia Tsumoto, the interim head of the new division.

"We want to expand our partnership with the counties. That will allow us to look at the whole system and identify potential problems earlier in the process," Tsumoto said. "Ultimately the goal is to have just one transportation policy."

Former DOT director Kazu Hayashida said the changes make sense.

"The harbors, highways and airports are all interconnected in some way," Hayashida said. "It's just generally good sense to have one set of plans that governs the projects for all of them."

The changes will allow engineers in the separate highways, harbors and airports divisions to concentrate on getting high priority projects built without being second guessed by other agencies or community members who often don't get involved in the process until construction work is ready to begin, Tsumoto said.

Haraga left Hawai'i Friday night for meetings with federal transportation officials in Washington, D.C.

Among the projects he planned to discuss were the proposed Nimitz Highway flyover proposal, financing for a fixed rail line on O'ahu and concerns about security and agricultural inspections at the state airports, he said.

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5460.