Portion of Hawaii Kai median will be removed
Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann plans to spend up to $125,000 to tear out a portion of an unpopular $1.5 million traffic calming project put in by his predecessor Jeremy Harris in Hawaii Kai.
The city is accepting bids to remove a 140-foot section of landscape median on Lunalilo Home Road, between Kaumakani and Anapalau streets, near the Koko Marina Shopping Center.
"Hurray! Hallelujah," said Melvin Muranaka, manager of Hawaii National Bank Hawaii Kai branch.
The section scheduled for removal prevents left turns into the bank and a Union 76 station next door for mauka-bound motorists, and left turns into Hawaii Kai Church and preschool for makai-bound motorists.
Muranaka said he drives through Koko Marina Center to get to work. He said customers have had to do the same or travel farther up Lunalilo Home Road to make a U-turn to get to the bank.
But some motorists drive in the wrong lanes of traffic to turn into the bank or gas station, creating a safety hazard, said area Councilman Charles Djou.
"Now we're wasting taxpayer money to remove it," Djou said.
The median forced makai-bound motorists dropping off or picking up children at the Hawaii Kai Church Early Learning Center onto neighborhood streets behind the church, increasing local traffic, said Murray Breen, preschool administrator. But some motorists make a U-turn at the end of the median, backing up traffic as they wait for the mauka lanes to clear, Breen said.
Harris installed the median in 2003 over area residents' and business owners' protests.
Breen said the landscaping has helped to offset the blight caused by some dilapidated homes along Lunalilo. But the church was not informed that the median was going to prevent left turns into its driveway.
The project involves the removal of the raised concrete median and paving over it to create a turn lane, said Don Hamada, project manager. Work is scheduled to begin in February and completed in two months, he said.