LIHUE — It’s back to the drawing board, again.
The state Department of Transportation will be looking at several options over the next year aimed at relieving traffic congestion on Kuhio Highway, including one to open the Pouli Road connection to the Kapaa Bypass Road — re-addressing a problem officials have been trying to solve for at least 20 years.
“Traffic is horrendous and it’s getting worse and worse and I believe we need to pay attention to it,” Kauai County Councilman Gary Hooser said during the board’s meeting Wednesday.
Efforts by the state DOT to alleviate traffic congestion on Kuhio Highway date back to at least 1992, when officials kicked off planning efforts to improve the heavily traveled roadway, according to DOT documents.
A temporary bypass route, which uses private cane haul roads leased from private owners and is located mauka of Kuhio Highway, was opened to traffic in 1995. It’s still being used today, however DOT officials have said the road isn’t meant to be a permanent fix.
“The temporary bypass road … has provided some relief for traffic on Kuhio Highway through Waipouli and most of Kapaa Town. However, the continued use of this substandard road is not an adequate long-term solution,” DOT officials wrote in a 2003 environmental impact statement notice for a “Kapaa Relief Route.”
The Relief Route plan was undertaken over several years and proposed a number of improvements on Kuhio Highway between Hanamaulu and Kapaa Stream to “increase roadway capacity and provide alternate emergency access.”
But officials said Wednesday that traffic is still a problem.
And something should be done.
“As far as I’m concerned, I think the Kapaa traffic is bad — even on Saturdays it’s bad,” Councilman Mel Rapozo said. “I think a much larger look at the Kapaa and Wailua area needs to be done. The Kapaa Bypass works OK, but I think it’s about time we get an overview of the current state of plans.”
Some of the downfalls with the current bypass route, DOT officials noted in 2003, were the road’s susceptibility to flooding and mud flows during heavy rains and the “substandard” design of the roadway and bridge, which requires low speed limits. A 0.82-mile extension to the bypass road and a roundabout at the intersection of Olohena Road and Kapaa Bypass Road was later opened in 2007.
But County Engineer Larry Dill said plans for the Kapaa Relief Route have been abandoned by state DOT officials.
Instead, Dill said, smaller county and state projects identified in the Kapaa Relief Route’s environmental impact statement as potential solutions are being reviewed in a renewed DOT study set to begin in June.
That one-year study, he explained, will look at traffic mitigation measures, proposed route alignments and projected cost estimates.
“It’s sort of a feasibility study, if you will, of all these proposals for the Kapaa circulation area, and they’re going to be looking at these things without regard to jurisdiction whether it be state or county,” Dill said.
These proposals include those made to connect Pouli Road in Waipouli and Hauaala Road in Kapaa to the Kapaa Bypass Road, Dill said.
“Compared to other road improvements, it’s a smaller investment of funds than, say, that relief route, which was going to cost like $600 million,” Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura said. “We need to move with all due speed to do the study because it may be at least a good interim remedy.”
DOT officials did not respond before press time Wednesday to requests for comment.
• Darin Moriki, county government reporter, can be reached at 245-0428 or dmoriki@thegardenisland.com. Follow him on Twitter at @darinmoriki.
