Saddle Road to
gain new routes

Three proposals should ease
east-west traffic on the Big
Island's 'most dangerous road'

By Rod Thompson
Star-Bulletin

HILO - Forty-three miles of new roadway linking the east and west sides of the Big Island would be created in three projects now being planned.

A federal, state and county team is recommending an entirely new route for the western half of the Saddle Road, including the portion through the Army's Pohakuloa Training Area.

"Our road is the most dangerous road on the Big Island," said Pohakuloa Executive Officer David Heaukulani.

With a decision near on the Saddle, the state Transportation Department has begun steps to build a connecting 12-mile Saddle Road Extension from the west Hawaii uplands to the coast.

The $30 million project is too new for any details to have been decided, said department spokeswoman Marilyn Kali.

Hawaii County also is planning a 5.5-mile Puainako Extension in Hilo that would link to Saddle Road.

Construction on that $30 million project may start in the year 2000, said county Public Works official Bob Yanabu.

The first construction on the main Saddle project, expected in 2000, would be on 12.7 miles of new road on the border of Pohakuloa Area, said a bulletin issued by the Saddle Road Task Force.

The badly designed, crumbling road is made worse by the mix of speeding civilian traffic and slow-moving military vehicles, Heaukulani said.

Retired National Guard General Alexis Lum, now on U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye's staff, said military personnel have to stop training when they reach the road.

"It totally breaks the training exercise. It's a bad situation," he said.

A decision is expected in about April to confirm three new alignments:

The 12.7-mile section bordering Pohakuloa.

A connecting 9.6-mile section, which points toward Kona instead of Waimea, as the present road does.

A 3.4-mile section above Hilo.

Nineteen miles of existing roadway would also be rebuilt.

The cost would be $154.9 million, with the U.S. Defense Department providing the $38.5 million needed at Pohakuloa.

The remainder would be 80 percent funded by the Federal Highway Administration and 20 percent by the state.

An additional $13.7 million would be required for environmental projects. The main project would arise because the highway would go through 100 acres of habitat designated critical for the endangered palila bird.

In compensation, 10,000 acres of new habitat would be created, much of which is now being used for ranching.