New road in works since 1961 ready for traffic on Big Island

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — The largest new road project on the Big Island in decades opened yesterday, a $35.6 million, two-lane highway that runs up into the high ground above Hilo, offering developers access to hundreds of acres of mauka lands.

Big Island Mayor Harry Kim was among those who helped open the 4.5-mile Pu'ainako Street extension yesterday on the Big Island. Kevin Dayton • The Honolulu Advertiser

It is expected to ease some relatively minor traffic tie-ups in the upper Kaumana area above Hilo, and offers a direct new link for commuter traffic between the Prince Kuhio Plaza shopping area and the Saddle Road.

Traffic on the new Pu'ainako route likely will be light at first, but is expected to grow as the federal government presses ahead with $220 million in planned improvements to the dangerous and deteriorating Saddle Road.

The Pu'ainako project also throws open hundreds of acres of land overlooking Hilo Bay at a time when Hilo real-estate prices are soaring.

Zoning is in place for two planned developments covering more than 300 acres on both sides of the new road three to four miles mauka of Hilo, and another developer has a rezoning request pending before the county council for another 100 one-acre houselots a mile farther up the new road.

The Pu'ainako Street project has been on planning maps since 1961, and the county began design work on the project in 1991, said county chief engineer Bruce McClure. Construction on the road started in 2001.

Big Island Mayor Harry Kim said that demonstrates the need for government to move more quickly, especially on road projects in Kona. Kona development has outpaced road construction, causing regular traffic jams that are more severe than any tie-ups in the Hilo area.

"This will be an example of good, what was done, but it will also be an example of bad, how long it took," Kim said of the Pu'ainako project. "We know how lucky we are to have this for the Kaumana people."

Former County Council member Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd, who lobbied the state for construction money for the road, said the Pu'ainako project was completed ahead of Kona projects such as the proposed Ali'i Highway because of community resistance in Kona.

Kona community members disliked the original Ali'i Highway design so much that in the late 1990s residents demanded that it be redone, causing years of delays, Leithead-Todd said. Now the Ali'i Highway project may be stalled by a new controversy over ancient burials in the path of the proposed roadway, which would extend from Keauhou to Kailua.

"You didn't have community opposition on this side (Hilo)," Leithead-Todd said. "The road that runs into the least obstacles is the one that's going to go."

McClure said the county has set aside $23 million for improvements to Kona roads, and hopes to spend that money in the next three years to speed Kona traffic circulation.

The county also is planning improvements to the lower portion of the Pu'ainako project, which includes a 1.5-mile stretch from the Prince Kuhio mall area to Komohana Street.

Reach Kevin Dayton at (808) 935-3916 or kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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