Despite previous state Department of Transportation claims that a traffic study would be completed before the signal at the junction of Kuhio Highway and Kolo Road was removed, changes at the intersection were slowly implemented over the past week and
Despite previous state Department of Transportation claims that a traffic study would be completed before the signal at the junction of Kuhio Highway and Kolo Road was removed, changes at the intersection were slowly implemented over the past week and the light was removed Monday.
The signal had been a temporary measure to help ease traffic issues caused by construction on the Kilauea Bridge, which had shut down two of the three entrances into the former plantation town for almost all of 2008, but, after initial skepticism, community members had come to believe it improved area safety by reducing speeds.
Adjustments were made over a number of days to prepare the intersection for the signal’s removal. First, the waist-high plastic pegs separating the through and left-turn lanes on the southbound side of the highway and the road from the shoulder on the northbound side were removed.
Then, the signal’s program was changed to blinking yellow, meaning “proceed with caution,” for Kuhio Highway travelers and blinking red, meaning stop, for drivers on Kolo and Kalamania Roads rather than cycling through green, yellow and red.
Also, DOT spokeswoman Tammy Mori said in a Friday e-mail that the pedestrian crosswalk was moved to increase safety.
Mori said the trailer-mounted signals were removed because they are not designed for permanent use, making them difficult to maintain as they experienced hits from motor vehicles and sustained “severe” damage from the weather.
Kilauea Neighborhood Association board member Larry Hinkel last week expressed his frustration with the process.
“This is what they promised, that they would do the traffic study before they removed the traffic signal, but they’re removing it now without having done the study,” Hinkel said. “They told us what we wanted to hear and now they’re just doing what they want.”
However, the removal of the light could be a temporary inconvenience, as Mori said the state “will be performing a complete analysis of the intersection to make the final determination of the best type of traffic control for this intersection” and added that traffic analysis conducted in 2007 “revealed that the intersection met at least one of the criteria for a traffic signal to be installed.”
“Two options are possible,” she wrote, “one being a roundabout similar to the one on the Temporary Kapa‘a Bypass and the second being a signalized intersection.”
She said the DOT would be monitoring, and added that any improvements to the intersection would need to go through the normal funding procedures.
• Michael Levine, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or via e-mail at mlevine@kauaipubco.com
