The Kaiwi Street left turn restriction complaints by the old industrial area business owners is utterly ridiculous. In a nutshell, it would impede traffic flow and be unsafe to allow left turns on to Kaiwi Street from Queen Kaahumanu Highway.
HDOT Director Brennon Morioka succinctly explains the latter quite nicely with this comment :
“We have been clear from the beginning,” said Morioka, who said he will not make an exception at Kaiwi Street despite such requests by major land owner Queen Liliuokalani Trust and more than 100 businesses in the industrial area. “In looking at crossing two lanes on a highly traveled highway, we don’t think that is the safest condition.”
On top of being unsafe, this concern really should’ve been addressed much earlier. I find it hard to believe these business owners didn’t have the foresight to see this change might’ve impacted their businesses.On top of that its already too late to do any major design changes without causing more delays and cost overruns for the Queen Kaahumanu Highway widening project.
In my opinion, these business owners are crying over spilled milk. When the construction is completed on Eho Street, Makala Blvd,on Queen Kaahumanu Highway and Kona Commons there will be ample access roads into Old Industrial Area.
Andrew Cooper at A Darker View blog,gave a update on the ongoing Saddle Road resurfacing project between m.m 35 and m.m 47. They’ve reached m.m 40 on the Kona bound lane and m.m 39 on the Hilo bound lane.
Speaking of Andrew’s blog, he wrote up an interesting rebuttal to this comment about who will be filling the jobs at the future TMT Telescope on Mauna Kea.
Former Hawaii County Councilman/State Representative Jim Rath wrote up a interesting letter to the editor about the laundry list of problems facing West Hawaii. It is a real shame that he isn’t running for political office again. It seems he has real grasp on the eons of problems facing us.
Lastly,Hunter Bishop did some excellent reporting of last night’s Hawaii County Mayor forum.
Try taking a left turn anywhere on Highway 130 in Puna during most of the times during the day and you will see what RESIDENTS of the area have to deal with on a daily basis.