THE Waianae Coast's 80,000 residents' gift this holiday season is one of relief, delivered after Santa seemed struggling in the chimney for nearly nine years. An alternative route to the Leeward Coast now can be accessed in cases of emergency.

A police standoff with an armed robbery suspect at the intersection of Farrington Highway and Nanakuli Avenue in January 2000 shut down Farrington for nearly 14 hours, creating a traffic nightmare. Motorists locked in traffic while trying to come home in the afternoon complained that a second route was needed.

Little more than a month later, then-Mayor Jeremy Harris proposed a $1 million design to hook together and upgrade existing roadways mauka of and parallel to Farrington to assure passage to and from the coast in cases where the main road is blocked.

A burst water main closed the highway less than two months later on Memorial Day. Brush fires in 2005 and utility poles blown down by heavy winds in 2006 and leveled by wind and rain a year ago were reminders that people could be stranded on either side of the island.

For years, motorists have gazed at what seemed to be a million-dollar bridge to nowhere, barricaded at both ends on the makai side of Farrington at Nanakuli. Now they can look upon it as part of a reserve route when needed, in which case the gates there and at other points will be unlocked.

Harris said the project was estimated to cost up to $48 million, but Mayor Mufi Hannemann said the expense came to less than $5.9 million.

Residents might hope the emergency route will never be needed, in which case it might be called a waste of taxpayer dollars. That, of course, is too much to ask.