U.S. House bill includes $62.4 million for ferry
By Frank Oliveri
Advertiser Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — The House is expected to vote tomorrow on a massive transportation spending bill that includes $62.4 million during the next six years for ferry service in Hawai'i and Alaska.
The $275 billion House transportation spending bill includes nine Hawai'i projects, in addition to ferry service money: • $2.8 million for upgrades to Farrington Highway; • $1 million for the Waimea Bypass Project on the Big Island; • $4 million for the H-1 contraflow zipper lane; • $4.85 million to widen Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway; • $250,000 to study the East Hawai'i alternative road on the Big Island; • $1.5 million to engineer and design Puainako Street; • $600,000 to construct access roads to Kahului Airport; • $3 million to construct Kapa'a bypass; and • $10 million to widen Fort Weaver Road.
The money would be used for ferries, terminals or approaches to terminals. The bill doesn't state how it would be split between the two states.
Hawai'i projects
The House bill would provide $275 billion for road and transit projects during the next six years.
The bill includes more than $11 billion for 2,838 specific highway projects nationwide — roughly half the number House members requested. These projects are in addition to the $188 billion in formula funding the states will divvy up. The bill also includes about $25 billion for other highway-related programs and about $51 billion for transit nationwide.
The ferry money has sparked debate about where it should be used. State officials would prefer to alleviate mass-transit problems between West O'ahu and Honolulu. Rep. Ed Case, who represents the Neighbor Islands and rural O'ahu, wants to see the money provide ferry service between the Islands.
Case said money probably could be used for both inter- and intraisland ferry service.
"There is no road alternative for interisland travel," Case said. "You have airlines, period. That is a matter of basic necessity, of economic benefit and access to healthcare and lots of essential stuff."
Rod Haraga, director of the state Department of Transportation, said that with a growing mass transit problem on West O'ahu, he would welcome the seed money.
"Our freeways are over-taxed right now," Haraga said. "And we need to look at alternatives. This is a good thing for the state."
Haraga said the state and Honolulu County were examining Kalaeloa and Iroquois Point as possible terminal locations.
He said it would be easier to get regulatory approval for ferry terminals than for new highways or light-rail projects.
Hawai'i Superferry recently said it is on target to provide interisland ferry transportation by 2006, but still needs investors.
The House bill marks the middle ground between the $256 billion the White House wants to spend on transportation and the $318 billion bill the Senate passed last month. The House and Senate bills will have to be reconciled and not every project in the House bill will necessarily be in the final compromise.
