The anticipated opening date for the Ane Keohokalole Highway has been pushed back another month, from some time this month to mid-June.
County officials continue to “prudently manage” federal stimulus funds for the midlevel road construction, Public Works Director Warren Lee said, allowing the county to add more to the project. He said the project has not encountered any major new hitches and a grand opening date will be set based on Mayor Billy Kenoi’s availability and that of other dignitaries.
Lee and Kenoi said in February they anticipated the road opening by May. They gave that estimated completion date during a meeting announcing the construction of another mile of road, from Kealakehe Parkway to Hina-Lani Street.
Officials since decided, based on funding left after the “prudent” management of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act award to Hawaii County, to add in bioretention basins at the project’s northern end. Doing so, Lee added, will “eliminate or minimize any downstream impact,” toward the Kaloko-Honokohau National Historic Park.
Bioretention basins are “planters with plants inside,” Lee said. The plants are in organic mulch and other materials that capture the water and filter out silt.
Nan Inc. Project Manager Alex Leonard said the southern end of the project is also going well.
“Palani Road is going good,” he said. “We’re laying out for the final striping.”
Several factors allowed the county to add $3.24 million in work to the project, Lee said in February. For one, the county saved about $1.6 million in construction management costs by managing the project in-house. Secondly, contingency money that would have been used if construction workers had encountered additional geotechnical issues, such as finding a number of unmapped lava tubes, or discovering many unexpected archaeological sites, wasn’t used.
Hawaii County in 2009 received about $35 million in federal funds to build the road, initially just from Palani Road to Kealakehe Parkway. County officials had enough funds left over to begin grading from Kealakehe Parkway to Hina-Lani Street, then enough to pave that segment. Kenoi in February said to build the road from Hina-Lani Street to Kaiminani Drive would cost another $30 million to $50 million. He said he planned to ask Sen. Daniel Inouye’s office for that funding.
Palamanui developers provided funding for a portion of Ane Keohokalole Highway from Kaiminani Drive north to the development’s internal road accessing the planned college campus.
