I’ve been a strong advocate to get the Hokulia bypass completed. However that won’t happen until the Coupes stop filing appeals blocking the condemnation their land for this road. Hokulia has stated that they won’t commence construction until the Coupes exhaust all their appellate options.
On top of that, Hokulia’s financial condition, and acquiring the last parcel needed for this road are other the significant hurdles that need to be jumped before construction can commence on completing the last 2.07 miles of this roadway.
This is all utterly frustrating. Do Charles & Joan Coupe care that they are making a lot of people suffer in a traffic nightmare that could be resolved if they allowed their land to be condemned ? Their actions thus far show that they don’t. They seem to be content to hold the Kona community hostage.
The Queen Kaahumanu highway Phase II widening project is another frustrating debacle. As it stands now,the DCCA Office of Administrative Hearings is in the process of adjudicating Hawaiian Dredging latest bid protest. The pleadings for the latter were completed on June 12th.Thus it is hopeful that the OAH will issue a ruling in the next couple weeks.
However the legal wrangling is far from over. If the DCCA-OAH denies HDCC’s latest protest the HDOT can use this decision as evidence during the HDOT’s appeal of the OAH’s first ruling.But it is very likely the HDCC will likely appeal in that scenario. The same goes for Goodfellow Brothers if the OAH rules in favor of HDCC and awards them the contract to build Phase II.
I personally hope Goodfellow Brothers is ultimately awarded the contract to widen Queen Kaahumanu highway between Kealakehe Parkway and Kona Int’l Airport. Goodfellow Brothers seems to be a more competent contractor who gets projects done on time unlike HDCC.
