Wider highway
will ease rush
hour on Maui
The Honoapiilani Highway widening
By Gary T. Kubota
from two to four lanes should be
finished by February 2000
Star-BulletinKAANAPALI -- The state has started widening a section of highway that serves the Kaanapali resort area on Maui.
On the two-lane Honoapiilani Highway, traffic slows to a crawl in the afternoons until vehicles are bumper to bumper for four miles.
"We need traffic relief desperately," said Ruth McKay, a board member for the West Maui Taxpayers Association.
"When hotel workers are getting off in the afternoon and the tourists are coming back from the beaches, everybody converges and there's tremendous traffic."
The widening of Honoapiilani Highway from two to four lanes is expected to significantly ease traffic flow between residential and work destinations in west Maui.
Construction on the 2.2-mile section from Kaanapali Parkway to the Honokowai Stream Bridge started last month. It is scheduled to be completed by February 2000.
The contractor for the $10 million project is Kiewit Pacific Co.
Work includes building new concrete bridges, retaining walls, drainage systems, guardrails, traffic signal systems, underground electrical and telephone systems, and street lighting systems at intersections.
Robert Siarot, the state district engineer on Maui, said the road is at Level E, which is one level better than gridlock.
With the widening, he said, the highway will be improved to Level B, in which cars collect in groups on a road but are able to travel at the speed limit.
Amfac/JMB is planning to use the widened road to accommodate its proposed 280-unit Kaanapali Ocean Resort time-share project in north Kaanapali.
Meanwhile, state officials are moving forward with plans to build an 8-mile bypass mauka of Lahaina Town from Launiupoko to Honokowai.
Siarot said the design for the bypass, estimated to cost $123 million, is expected to take about two years.
