$1.45M later, city quits on 2-way Punchbowl
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer
The city is abandoning a project that already has cost $1.45 million to create two-way traffic on lower Punchbowl Street and instead will restore about a dozen parking spaces removed from the area.
Contractors this week began removing trees, concrete curbs and signs installed late last year as part of the project.
"It simply didn't meet the new mayor's mantra: Do we need it? Can we maintain it?" said Wayne Hashiro, acting director of the Department of Design and Construction.
Directors from three city departments agreed that the concrete planting rings placed in the diamondhead lane of Punchbowl where parking spaces had been would have created safety, maintenance and flooding problems, Hashiro said.
They also could not find any great benefit to creating a new mauka-bound traffic lane on the portion of the street that is now one-way, he said.
Under former Mayor Jeremy Harris, the city last year began work on the project, the final phase of what it said were traffic improvements for Punchbowl Street.
Under the first phase, a two-way section of the street was created in 1999 between King and Beretania streets. The second phase involved widening the part of the street leading to the H-1 Freeway and Pali Highway on-ramps.
The new work would have added at least one lane of mauka-bound traffic between Ala Moana and King Street, but it prompted complaints from people worried about losing parking spaces in an area that serves several government buildings.
"It would have put a further strain on what's already a bad situation," said Andrew Robinson, a Honolulu businessman who parks in the area at least once a month. "I was lucky to get a parking spot today, but it's really tough."
Chris Canyon, who was parking on Punchbowl Street yesterday to pick up a permit from a nearby state building, said he appreciates the restored parking but wonders about the cost.
"Spent the money already, so might as well keep what's there," he said.
Hashiro said the concrete curbs placed on the roadway could cause flooding during heavy rains, and the trees would require expensive maintenance as they matured.
The contractor who installed the improvements under the $1.45 million contract has agreed to remove them all at no extra cost, he said.
Once the changes are made by early April, the city plans to repave the entire one-way length of Punchbowl Street from King Street to Ala Moana, he said.
Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
