Posted on: Monday, September 27, 2004

Burials delay Ali'i Highway

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — The Ali'i Highway project from Keauhou to Kailua has been dealt another setback, and this time it means a delay of at least a year while county officials figure out how to cope with burials in the path of the proposed road, said Big Island chief engineer Bruce McClure.

The Hawai'i Island Burial Council last week refused to reconsider its July decision denying the county permission to relocate a burial in the path of the proposed highway.

McClure said the county must either appeal the burial council's decision or re-engineer the 4.5-mile project to avoid the burial. He said no decision has been made yet.

Either way, the county will lose $20 million in federal money that had been earmarked for the project this fiscal year. The county needed to solicit and open bids for the project by Thursday to lock up the money, and that is now impossible, McClure said.

The county had hoped to begin construction early next year, but now work on the $60 million roadway will have to wait at least until early 2006, and maybe longer, McClure said.

He said the county still plans to press ahead with the project, which county officials say is essential to improving traffic flow in Kona, but he expects more resistance.

"I think it's their belief that the area is just too special to ever put a road through," McClure said of project opponents.

The highway has been repeatedly delayed. Ali'i Highway was positioned to receive federal funding in 1998, but county officials held off after critics said it should be redesigned down from a four-lane highway to a two-lane thoroughfare.

Now opponents are protesting that the county has not properly surveyed the road alignment for burials. Jack Kelly, vice president of the Protect Keopuka 'Ohana, said there is ample evidence more burials are in the path of the proposed highway and will quickly be unearthed if work is allowed to begin.

"Our intention is to make sure the burials in the highway corridor are protected and preserved," Kelly said. "We feel like the archaeological survey is deficient, and much destruction will occur if the project is built."

"At this point we feel like the county is wasting their money, and they keep coming back with this project," Kelly said. "I think they should abandon the project entirely and concentrate on mauka-to-makai connectors and widening existing highways."

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