CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM A couple walked across the crosswalk on Ala Oli Street and Haloa Drive in Foster Village yesterday. Some residents are upset about a roundabout being placed in that intersection.

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Roundabout gets
Foster Village wound up

Foster Village residents opposed to the installation of a roundabout in the middle of a busy neighborhood intersection plan to protest its construction as soon as the contractor resumes work on it.

About 20 people showed up at Ala Oli Street and Haloa Drive yesterday to protest in front of the contractor, but no workers showed up.

"Obviously they didn't show up because they knew we were going to be there," said Janice Pechauer, a Foster Village resident who is leading the protest. "We'll just have to be there every morning."

City Transportation Director Edward Hirata said contractor Okada Trucking Co. has six months to complete the project and can proceed as it sees fit. He said work started earlier this week.

Pechauer said residents don't want the roundabout because it is not needed and will make it difficult for emergency vehicles to enter the neighborhood.

Hirata said the purpose of the roundabout is to discourage speeding and make it easier for traffic to enter Haloa Drive.

Pechauer also said that the roundabout will cause children to dart across the intersection to go to and from school because one crosswalk across Haloa Drive will be removed and the other one will be moved away from the intersection.

However, Hirata said no crosswalks will be removed and the project will make it easier for schoolchildren to cross the street.

"Right at the roundabout there will be medians built in crosswalks. It allows children to cross Haloa Street half a street at a time," Hirata said.

Pechauer has been fighting the project since January 2003, when she first learned of it, and said the city is going ahead with it over the residents' objections. She collected signatures of more than 500 residents opposed to the project.

Hirata said the 500 people who signed the petition are from just 380 of the 950 households in the Foster Village subdivision.

"They don't even represent 50 percent of the residents," Hirata said.

He said the city proposed the project after twice meeting with residents in 2000 who said their No. 1 priority was speeding and pedestrian safety at the Ala Oli Street and Haloa Drive intersection.

The city requested bids for the project in 2001, but was not able to begin work until it received approval from the Navy, which has underground fuel lines in the area, he said. The Foster Village Community gave the city the land for the streets at no cost, Hirata added.