The Hanalei Roads Committee is challenging a state Department of Transportation decision to move ahead with $2.4 million in road improvements on ten miles of road on Kuhio Highway on Kauai’s north shore. At a Kaua’i County Planning Commission meeting
The Hanalei Roads Committee is challenging a state Department of Transportation decision to move ahead with $2.4 million in road improvements on ten miles of road on Kuhio Highway on Kauai’s north shore.
At a Kaua’i County Planning Commission meeting at the Lihu’e Civic Center Tuesday, the non-profit group told commissioners an environmental assessment should be done for the work from the western edge of Princeville to Ke’e Beach.
The group also asked the Kaua’i Planning Commission to require the DOT to secure a county Special Management Area permit for the work because the project is involved and immense.
The group contends the work is part of larger DOT projects planned for the area and that the impacts could be cumulative and harmful to the environment.
Consequently, tighter scrutiny of government operations provided by the environmental study and input from residents through the SMA process are needed, HRC contended.
In letters to Robeson and the Kaua’i Planning Department, the DOT contends the project is not connected with other projects planned for the area and is intended to make the road safer.
The work includes installation of guardrails, shoulder and drainage improvement, erosion mitigation and culvert widening.
Members of the group, including Barbara Robeson, co-chairman of the group and a former county planning commissioner, plan to meet with the Kaua’i County Attorney’s Office to discuss options on how to process the requests from the group.
Yesterday, Robeson said numerous county studies point to the need for the DOT to obtain the SMA permit and the environmental study.
Robeson said the county general plan identifies the road, Route 560, as a “scenic roadway corridor,” and the county’s comprehensive zoning ordinance identifies the area for special planning.
The area also was nominated for placement onto the state and national Register of Historic Places, Robeson said.
In one letter to Steve Kyono, district engineer of the DOT highways division on Kaua’i, Robeson said an environmental study is necessary because the work is large and not exempt from the requirement for an environmental assessment.
Kyono was not at the meeting, but in a letter, noted that DOT developed a list of exempted projects in 1992 and that a DOT highways administrator “concurred with the determination” that proposed highway improvements are exempted from the environmental study requirement.
Kyono said work in the “exempted” class include: Resurfacing, repair of roadways, road shoulders, parking areas, repairs to rock walls, clearing of swales and drainage conduits to maintain existing water flow conditions, upgrading of or replacement of utility and drainage systems and installation of guard rails.
Related to the need for the SMA permit, Robeson noted that the DOT project is just one many projects the agency has planned for the area that can have far-reaching cumulative impacts.
Other projects include repairs to the Hanalei Bridge, construction of a new crossing at Manoa Stream and possible relocation of the Hanalei scenic outlook, HRC said.
Kyono said, however, that the repair and maintenance of roads and highways don’t constitute “development,” and that DOT doesn’t’ an SMA permit for the work to proceed.
Robeson also noted HRC felt that any improvements should be postponed until a 25-year “corridor plan” for the area is completed.
In addition, a culvert should not be placed at the entry to Hanalei town until the plan is done, Robeson said.
Kyono said the work is being done for safety.
Plans call for replacement of 4,333 feet of existing guardrails and terminal ends and installation of 4,817 feet of new guardrails and terminal ends, Kyono said.
Kyono said residents attending recent public meetings on the proposed work voiced concerns the guardrails will impact the “visual environment and scenery” along the road.
“However, the highways division has maintained that safety cannot, and will not be, compromised,” Kyono wrote.
Ray Chuan, a Hanalei resident and a candidate for the Kaua’i County Council this year, contended one DOT work crews put up guardrails in Wainiha “with haste” and “abandon.”
Chuan claimed workers dumped old guardrails down an embankment, breaking federal anti-pollution laws, Chuan contended. “They were dumping waste from the work in the ocean, as they go (along),” Chuan said.
DOT officials were not at the meeting and were not available for immediate comment on Chuan’s charge.
The DOT also has not given sufficient public notice on upcoming work, Chuan contended. During the weight testing of bridges between Hanalei River and Ke’e Beach this summer, work was “done without public notice” or done on a “single notice on Friday, and work proceeded Monday,” Chuan said.
With regard to the latest road improvement project, Kyono noted that DOT and its consultants held two public information meetings in Hanalei.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
