KAILUA-KONA — The effort to widen a portion of Queen Kaahumanu Highway is still on track to be “substantially complete” in August, with the upcoming activation of a traffic signal to be the latest sign of progress on the nearly three-year-old project.
The signal at the intersection of the highway and the entrance road to Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park will be activated at 9 a.m. Tuesday. For one day prior, the signal will flash yellow to get drivers used to the signal.
That signal will control northbound and southbound traffic on Queen Kaahumanu Highway as well as traffic into and out of the national park road on the highway’s makai side and the West Hawaii Business Park site on the mauka side.
After the signal’s activation, said Department of Transportation spokeswoman Shelly Kunishige, remaining work will consist of paving and striping between Hina Lani Street and Kealakehe Parkway as well as the installation of signs.
Once that’s finished, they will open the second southbound lane throughout the project’s full length.
Remaining work will include grading the median and landscaping as well as the installation of rumble strips, signs and “general project clean-up work,” said Kunishige.
Motorists are advised to be aware of warning signs in the area and anticipate equipment and workers in the median and on road shoulders.
Some night work and lane closures, she added, might be required.
The $128.1 million project, officially phase 2 of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway widening project, will widen a little more than 5 miles of Highway 19 from two to four lanes between Kealakehe Parkway and Keahole Airport Road. New lights and signals will also be installed along with the project.
Phase 1 widened about 2.6 miles of road between Henry Street and Kealakehe Parkway.
Phase 2 of the project is expected to be “substantially complete” in August, by which time it will have been close to three years since it broke ground.
At that time, estimates put the cost at around $90 million, a price tag that has grown over time, most recently in May, when the state Department of Transportation authorized an additional $5.5 million to rebuild the highway’s mauka-side pavement between Hina Lani Street and Kealakehe Parkway. Another $1.3 million, paid for by the County of Hawaii, went toward water and sewer line improvements in the area.