LIHUE — Change is coming to downtown Lihue — some of which has already started.
The Lihue Town Core Mobility and Revitalization Project was the focus of the Lihue Business Association’s monthly meeting at Duke’s Canoe Club restaurant Thursday morning.
County Department of Public Works Deputy County Engineer Lyle Tabata said he and county Managing Director Mike Dahilig got the inspiration for the project after a trip to San Diego and seeing some of the concepts used there.
He said the community needs to get in the habit of using pathways and walkways instead of driving right in front of their destinations.
Tabata said the project was a “no-brainer,” to the applause of about 35 people.
“He (Dahilig) took me walking all over these places and we came back and we pushed this project forward and got it funded,” Tabata said.
The two-phase project is scheduled for completion in December. It is funded in part by a federal grant through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program. In 2015, the County of Kauai was awarded $15.1 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The county will add an additional $2 million to the project, which includes streetscape improvements, safer pedestrian crossings, and dedicated on-street parking.
Tabata said that about 80 parking spots will be created through the project.
The project will consist of seven components including the Eiwa Street transit hub — completing the conversion of the street with bus stops, shelters, pedestrian promenade, parking and bike lanes. That construction work is ongoing.
Another component is the conversion of Rice Street from four lanes to three, sidewalks on Ho‘ala and Kalena streets, Ho‘olako Street bicycle and pedestrian facilities, a shared use path between the Lihue Civic Center and Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall, Pua‘ole Street and Malae Street bicycle boulevard and public restrooms for transit patrons at the Piikoi Building of the Lihue Civic Center.
As part of phase one, a new sidewalk is being installed on Rice Street from Umi Street to Ewalu Street, causing a temporary lane closure on Rice Street. A business access pathway near the sidewalk construction has been installed until that portion of the project is completed, which is scheduled for late June.
The public can expect notifications about scheduled work.
Councilmember Luke Evslin spoke of a plan to get affordable housing in the Lihue area, something that will be aided by the revitalization project.
“Councilmember (Mason) Chock and myself have six bills that we introduced last week to the Planning Commission. Five of them are targeting reducing fees and permitting for ARUs (Affordable Rental Units), and the sixth one would allow ARUs to eventually be built along Rice Street,” Evslin said.
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Ryan Collins, county reporter, can be reached at 245-0424 or rcollins@thegardenisland.com.
Sounds like it’s gonna be a beautiful place for the homeless population to hang out.
I wonder who will maintain it all.
Rice st is a major artery road. The title of the article relates to the plan.
perhaps we could fix our current streets before all this? Taking trips to San Diego, wasting time and money when our roads need fixing?? I hope all this walking area is handicapped accessible for those who can’t walk! And Rice street down to 3 lanes? With the traffic on it now? Have you lost your minds?
Oh hurrah! More of the naive “let’s copy the mainland” thinking. It’s funny/tragic to think this all got started by trying to be like San Diego. You know, San Diego with its 1.4 million people is practically the same as Lihue, pop. 6712. So let’s copy them! Never mind that basically Rice Street has very little foot traffic because there’s very few places to go. Yes there’s the brewery and a coffee house. Yes. But what else? Midas? Robs? Really? We’re gonna block up one of the few 4 lane roads to make it more bike friendly so we can walk to Robs from Wailua? Didn’t anyone notice that the customers at the brewery don’t live nearby like they might in a city say like, San Diego? So they can’t/aren’t/won’t walk/bike/unicycle down to Rice Street. It’s a terrible plan! There’s a dumb idea that gets recycled by our county government: that if you create something that you will create demand. That’s backwards. Government needs to look at what’s *actually* needed rather than what they wish was needed. I’m calling it right now that this plan will fail hard.
There are a lots of us who can’t walk far due to health problems so you are going to make it harder for us by not driving to our destination? Wait till you get old
I was born and raised on Kauai during the 70’s & 80’s and traffic was moderate then, the streets and highways were ok but it started to show its wear and tear with deep ruts and potholes, uneven patch jobs applied by the county or state, the streets and highways are narrower than what it should be, I haven’t been on Kauai well over 20 years and when I did my first vacation back home last year May, I’ve seen how bad the highway and street infrastructure is, with the growing numbers of tourism and local population, the entire infrastructure is well it’s capacity and will continue to deteriorate, the county and state officials needs to address the issues and allocate the funding on the streets and highways and improve the streets and highways infrastructure, I remember when it only took 10 to get to Wailua or Kapaa from Lihue during the 70’s & 80’s, now it’s a 30 min to nearly about an hour during the rush hour times.
Please don’t use San Diego as an example for anything, especially when it involves pedestrians or walkways. I live in San Diego and the city has become overcrowded and under managed. Our sidewalks have become littered and literally overridden by un-docked electric scooters. You can’t even walk on our boardwalks or sidewalks in popular areas without nearly getting run over by a scooter. Our City Council is all about approving development or new technologies with little to no thought on maintenance or enforcement. Fortunately Kauai is not yet like San Diego and please do not let it become like San Diego by taking anything from San Diego as an example of something to emulate. Travel money to the mainland would be better spent coming up with local ideas based on local needs.
Do we really need bike access to all of these shuttered buildings?
Congratulations to the County for comprehensive planning and this push toward making Lihue more accessible and more useable by everyone. Yes, we should be using bikes and walking a lot more and maybe this will help. And congratulations for securing the TIGR grant that is very hard to get. It is earmarked for this vision and can’t be used for anything else.
Many other communities vying for the grant didn’t get it, so Kauai County deserves kudos for beating out the competition and bringing money to the island it would not otherwise have. People have to understand that nothing is being diverted or neglected by this additional funding to Lihue.
For once, a big thank you to the current and former mayor and department heads and all involved.