Wall by Coco Palms must go
Wall by Coco Palms must go
“Tear down this wall!” That’s what Ronald Reagan said. And although he was talking about the Berlin Wall, his message needs to be conveyed to Kauai County, Hawaii Department of Transportation and whoever-the-heck currently owns Coco Palms.
The large lava wall that sits on the northwest corner of Kuhio Highway and Kuamo‘o Road completely obstructs the line-of-sight for cars turning south onto Kuhio from Kuamo‘o.
It’s both dangerous and a large reason traffic coming down from Wailua Homesteads is so backed up during the morning rush hour. What happens is each person turning right on red has to creep up to Kuhio Highway and peek around the wall before they can safely turn. This slows things a lot!
This intersection is already sketchy with its odd traffic pattern, but the wall dramatically cuts the line of sight and makes a bad situation worse. You can really see the effect around 6:55 a.m. when the southbound traffic on Kuhio is thin but cars are backed up for half a mile up Kuamo‘o. By 7:15 that backup can be as much as 1.5 miles.
Of course the wall isn’t completely responsible for all this, but it definitely contributes, and its effects are even more clear now that all the brush has been cut back. Surely the county has the ability to do something this simple like tear down a single wall to improve traffic.
(P.S. Coco Palms has been abandoned for over 25 years now).
John Patterson, Kapaa
