County Department of Public Works crews and the company working to widen Queen Kaahumanu Highway are gearing up for the IRONMAN World Championships.
Construction on highway will be suspended on the Friday before the race, through race day. That’s to stay out of the way as IRONMAN sets up for the triathlon, said Ed Brown, project manager for Goodfellow Bros.
Crews will sweep the road shoulder and are now working to make up for the time lost when they will be idled, Brown said.
“We just want to be proactive because we know there’s going to be a lot of activity setting up and we don’t want to battle that,” he said.
Trucks working on the widening project have been entering and leaving at the entrances to the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority and the Kona International Airport. So far, interactions with vehicles and training athletes on bicycles have been without incident, Brown said.
“We’re pretty much off the road; everything has been going well,” Brown said. “The public has been great.”
Goodfellow Bros. started earthmoving on Sept. 8, beginning just north of the airport entrance and working south. Machines moved the large boulders into low-lying areas and trucks have been hauling massive amounts of fill from West Hawaii Concrete facilities. Crews are also installing 72-inch culverts, Brown said.
“We’re focusing on mass grading right now,” he said. “We are on schedule.”
The contractor has pledged to maintain an “IRONMAN Cooridor” and to keep the highway open to cyclists and pedestrians during the estimated two years of construction.
Also in preparation for IRONMAN, the DPW Traffic Division has finished adding 8-inch edge-of-pavement lines along the length of Alii Drive to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, said DPW spokesman Barett Otani.
Reflective pavement markers, striping, and crosswalk delineations have also been freshened where needed, he said. Crews are running maintenance checks on lighting along Alii Drive, Palani Road and Queen Kaahumanu Highway, and are checking traffic cameras which will feed into the race operations center.
DPW has increased trash pickup along the course, Otani said. The department has also stepped up vegetation control, shoulder maintenance and general highway cleanup, he said.