$35.6M Big Island
road opens
HILO » Officials opened the $35.6 million Puainako Street extension in Hilo yesterday, linking the south side of the city with the Saddle Road to West Hawaii.
The 4.5-mile stretch is surrounded by forest for most of its length.
County Public Works Director Bruce McClure said the new connection will help carry traffic across the island. "It's an east-west road," he said.
Mayor Harry Kim emphasized the unity the road represents. "Kona is our brothers and sisters and our family," he said.
But disunity was the actual cause of federal money -- 80 percent of the project cost -- going to Hilo instead of the much-needed Alii Highway in Kona.
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Former County Councilwoman Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd said federal money was ready for Alii Highway, but Kona residents complained about the four-lane design. Federal money was lost when the county began a new two-lane design.
Meanwhile, Kona traffic has grown so bad that Kim recently vetoed a commercial and residential project there because of traffic concerns.
"If I could wave a magic wand and trade this road for Alii Highway, I would do it," Leithead-Todd said.
Councilman Leningrad Elarionoff from Waimea, which is considered part of West Hawaii, added, "It breaks my heart to know that this could have been Alii Highway."
In comparison to Kona residents' dissatisfaction over Alii Highway, landowners on the right-of-way in Hilo were eager to cooperate, Leithead-Todd said.
"Take my land. Just give me a fair price for it," she said they told her.
The new road links the existing 1.5-mile Puainako Street to the Saddle Road, which is under construction.
A six-mile segment of the 47-mile project is under construction through the Army's Pohakuloa Training Area. Completion of the federally funded $11 million segment is expected in February, said federal project engineer Eric Zeller.
Besides aiding cross-island travel, the Puainako extension will also help take traffic off Kaumana Drive, one of the main roads in Hilo, despite being narrow and winding with drop-offs into open drainage ditches along much of its length.
"It was laid out at the turn of the century. It was laid out for horse carts going 5 mph," McClure said.
The Puainako extension also leads to the Puainako and Prince Kuhio Plaza commercial areas, unlike Kaumana which leads to downtown Hilo businesses.
But M'Lissa Kenison of the Downtown Improvement Association doesn't think the other areas will drain business from downtown. With downtown's restaurants and specialty shops, "We get a different type of clientele," she said.
