CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Completion of the Kapolei Parkway extension is expected to alleviate Kapolei traffic congestion, like that seen yesterday at Fort Barrette Road and Farrington Highway.

Kapolei road plan speeds up

A developer's deal means an extension of Kapolei Parkway will be built sooner

The planned Kapolei Parkway extension connecting Fort Barrette Road and Kamokila Boulevard is expected to be completed in 2008, two years earlier than the city had anticipated.

Kapolei Property Development will spend $15 million to build most of the nearly 1-mile-long extension from Kamokila Boulevard. DR Horton, which is building homes makai of the area, will complete the extension from Fort Barrette Road.

The design of the project is already under way and the entire extension is expected to be completed by the end of 2008.

"Obviously, it would have taken us longer to do that," Mayor Mufi Hannemann said. "It's always better as the private sector is willing to step forward and to do it because that makes it quicker."

The city had projected the extension would be completed in 2010 but had yet to commit any money for the project. The developer will be able to apply the $15 million toward future impact fees.

The extension is expected to relieve traffic congestion in Kapolei by allowing motorists to bypass Farrington Highway fronting Kapolei Shopping Center. It will also give motorists an alternate route to the H-1 Freeway.

The parkway extension also will facilitate the expansion of Kapolei's urban center.

"The lands immediately adjacent to Kapolei Parkway on both sides are identified for office/commercial development," said Donna Goth, KPD president.

The extension will also play a key role in the mayor's plan for mass transit on Oahu. The developer has given land along the extension to the city for a bus center and transit station, Goth said.

KPD has also pledged as much as $900,000 to increase capacity at the Makakilo Drive-Farrington Highway intersection, a traffic bottleneck for motorists entering and exiting H-1 and traveling between Makakilo and Kapolei.

The project involves widening the intersection and lengthening the right-turn lanes for motorists heading to Kapolei Shopping Center from Makakilo. It, too, is expected to be completed in 2008 if the city fast-tracks the permits for the project.

KPD is an affiliate of James Campbell Co., the successor of the soon-to-be dissolved Campbell Estate.