Ken Obenski’s recent commentary, which urged the county to resurrect the Alii Parkway project, is way off base. Hawaii County has planned to construct this highway since the 1960s. It wasn’t until the 2000s that the federal funding was secured, and lost, to construct it.
The Federal Highway Administration, FHWA, withdrew funding in 2004 after the Hawaii Island Burial Council denied the county’s request to move several burials in the right of way in Keauhou. As a result of that withdrawal, the FHWA funds were reallocated to the Puainako Street Extension in Hilo and Saddle Road improvement projects.
The county did have the opportunity to construct a $20 million bridge over the burials, but that was deemed too costly at the time. The phase 2 segment between Lako Street and Alii Drive was estimated to cost $40 million, so it was decided it wasn’t financially prudent to proceed.
The other problematic issue with this highway was the need to construct phase 1, along with phase 2. Phase 1 would go from Lako Street to Hualalai Road intersection on Queen Kaahumanu Highway extension. If the county didn’t proceed with phase 1, it would run the risk of creating a larger traffic bottleneck at the Lako Street/Kuakini Highway intersection.
The latter issue isn’t fully addressed with the completion of phase 1 though. It will simply move the bottleneck northward to the Hualalai Road/Queen Kaahumanu Highway extension intersection. This is why any highway improvements need to start at the Henry Street/Queen Kaahumanu Highway extension intersection.
Hawaii County has spent over $6.3 million in taxpayer money on designing and acquiring the right of way for the proposed Alii Parkway with nothing to show for it. I firmly believe the focus should be on widening Queen Kaahumanu Highway extension/Kuakini Highway to four lanes instead of resurrecting this boondoggle highway.
Aaron Stene is a resident of Kailua-Kona.