Kokua Line
Kokua Line
Question: The view from Mokapu Boulevard and the H-3 freeway to Kaneohe Bay Drive down to Kaneohe Bay is one of the most magnificent in the islands. Suddenly there are 40- to 50-foot poles in the Kaneohe Bay Drive median strip. There's an electrical company working on them. It's just a disaster to look at. No one seems to know what's going on, and there was no forewarning. These massive poles are ruining the most magnificent view on the island. Can you find out what this is all about? Unsightly poles in Kaneohe
will stay up until next yearAnswer: The good news is that the highway lights mounted on wooden poles are meant to be temporary. However, you'll have to live with them at least until January.
The poles are an offshoot of the state Department of Transportation's Mokapu Saddle Road Slope Stability Project from Mikiola Drive to Kahinani Place.
The $3.3 million project includes constructing three retaining walls with a "rock-texture" finish, resurfacing and reconstructing the existing shoulder pavement, upgrading and replacing guardrails, replacing existing signs and replacing existing utilities -- including light poles.
The lights on the new poles will remain the same height from the roadway as the existing highway lights. The temporary highway lights along the Kaneohe Bay Drive median that have been the focus of many residents' concerns will be removed after construction, sometime early next year, according to a DOT highways official.
The DOT's contractor, Okada Trucking, began working on the retaining wall near Mikiola Drive on April 15. When that wall is completed, work will proceed on the retaining walls near Kahinani Place and Nanamoana Street, with construction targeted for completion in the spring of 2003.
A flyer with all this information was to be sent out to area residents this week. The project was discussed with the Kaneohe and Kailua neighborhood boards in the past year, although the temporary wooden poles were probably not brought up because they are not part of the main project.
Auwe
To an elderly woman driving a Jaguar. About noon Monday, April 15, I was waiting for a parking space to open up in the municipal lot by Kay's Saimin and Black Tie Affair, across from the Victoria Inn, in Kaimuki. I had my left-turn blinker on and, after the van pulled out, was prepared to move into the space when all of a sudden, she drives up from the opposite direction and proceeds to back into the space! I could not believe it. She looked at me blankly as she awkwardly reversed in. What has happened to civility -- or simply waiting one's turn? -- Still Stunned
Mahalo
To all the folks who came to my mother's aid when she fell and broke her hip on the sidewalk at Waialae Avenue on Monday, April 8. Mahalo also to the policeman who called me to let me know about the accident and, later, which hospital she was taken to. -- Suzie Heidrich
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