Puna’s primary traffic corridor will be widened thanks to a $30 million allocation in the state budget.
Highway 130, the only major road connecting lower Puna with the rest of the island, will be expanded from two to four lanes over the one-mile stretch between Shower and Kaloli drives in Hawaiian Paradise Park.
The project, along with several other planned improvements for the busy highway, hopefully will alleviate the frequent traffic problems that plague the road, said Puna Sen. Joy San Buenaventura, who announced the funding Tuesday.
“I don’t know how many people are driving it, but just based on the population of lower Puna, I would guess at least 25,000 people daily,” San Buenaventura said. “And the biggest population block in Puna is Hawaiian Paradise Park.”
According to state Department of Transportation statistics, anywhere from 15,000 to 75,000 vehicles traverse the highway daily, depending on location.
San Buenaventura said she believes, based on conversations with Ed Sniffen, DOT’s deputy director for highways, that the project should be completed “within the next four years,” to correspond with other projects planned for the highway.
San Buenaventura said she hopes the widening work will begin after the completion of a planned widening of the Ainaloa Roundabout, located south of HPP, in order to improve traffic.
San Buenaventura said that the “mini-roundabout” at Ainaloa Boulevard is too small to reasonably accommodate the volume of traffic on the highway, and frequently leads to traffic backups during peak hours.
The project also would complement the addition of an acceleration lane at the intersection of Shower Drive and Highway 130 that will allow drivers turning right onto the highway from HPP to safely merge into the northbound lane at speed.
San Buenaventura said that project, which was announced in 2021, has encountered delays regarding the acquisition of land necessary to build the additional lane, but it is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2024.
San Buenaventura added that the Highway 130 widening may be eligible for some degree of additional funding by the federal Department of Transportation.
DOT representatives were unable to comment Tuesday.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.