But it endorsed the concept of "collapsibility" – if the opening of the Lahaina bypass takes the pressure off the highway through Lahaina, then maybe that road could go back down to two lanes.

Commissioners expressed doubt that that would ever happen, but they liked the concept, The Maui News reported.

When the Department of Transportation first floated the idea of extending a four-lane Honoapiilani another mile through Lahaina in 2004, there was plenty of skepticism and some outright opposition.

Since then, in a series of community meetings, the skeptics have been won over, including Council Member Jo Anne Johnson. She testified as a resident of West Maui and said she was neither for nor against the project, having originally been a doubter. She said she was concerned whether it would be a safe project.

Another community concern is a sound barrier wall along most of the makai boundary.

Consultant Mich Hirano said the highway already exceeds U.S. Department of Transportation noise limits, so something has to be done even if the road is not widened.

Each set of property owners along the route will be given a vote, majority to prevail. Hirano said most seem to favor the wall.

Commissioner Kent Hiranaga, who lives behind a brick wall installed by A&B Properties for a Spreckelsville subdivision, said he likes his wall, as long as it is covered with vines to discourage graffiti.

The stretch from Aholo to Lahainaluna will primarily benefit the Shaw Street intersection, a bottleneck now that is predicted to grow worse by 2014 unless something is done.

If the road is widened, the level of service there will remain about the same.

The state has 80 feet of right of way, enough for four 11-foot traffic lanes, bike paths on either side, an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant sidewalk on the makai side and a 12-foot median to be planted with shade trees.

Work could start this December and it will take most of 2008.

The proposal includes dry wells to reduce runoff from the highway in an area that tends to flood.

Only Commissioner Joan Pawsat voted against the SMA.

On another application, the commission unanimously gave an SMA permit to Mike Kitagawa to allow him to set up an auto and appliance recycling facility on a lot that bends around a commercial complex at 111 Hana Highway.

Commissioner Jonathan Starr started out skeptical, because the lot, although zoned M-2 Heavy Industrial, is adjacent to the Kanaha Pond wetland.

When he heard of all the mitigation measures being taken – including filtered dry wells, berms, raising the lot against a rising ocean and others – he changed his mind.

"This is the kind of project I would love to hate," he said. "But I feel the applicant is trying hard to do the right thing."