HILO, Hawai'i — Many Kona commuters see Kaiminani Drive as one of the area's few mauka-makai thoroughfares or often as a shortcut to the airport.

But for residents of Kona Palisades Estates, the road is a steadily eroding part of their subdivision. Worried about the sorry state of the heavily traveled road, more than 60 residents have signed letters to Mayor Billy Kenoi asking the county to resurface it.

Their pleas have finally attracted attention. However, it remains to be seen when the road, connecting Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway with Māmalahoa Highway, will get a new layer of pavement.

Carole Carraway has lived in Kona Palisades for 13 years. She received a response to her letter last week, but she's far from satisfied. She blames developers reneging on promises to build mauka-makai connectors as contributing to the problem.

"We were under the impression that many more mauka-makai connector roads would be built," she said, "but all of the additional commuters have piggybacked onto this road."

Bobby Command, one of Kenoi's executive assistants, wrote a letter explaining that the county is aware of the problem and is trying to figure out how the roadwork can be paid for. Estimates for the project range upward of $6 million.