Representatives of the state Department of Transportation’s Highways Division Kaua‘i section are scheduled to present an update on its planning study for alleviating traffic problems in Kapa‘a Wednesday at a meeting with members of the Kapa‘a Business Association. The meeting,
Representatives of the state Department of Transportation’s Highways Division Kaua‘i section are scheduled to present an update on its planning study for alleviating traffic problems in Kapa‘a Wednesday at a meeting with members of the Kapa‘a Business Association.
The meeting, requested by Bob Bartolo, vice president and chair of the traffic committee for the Kapa‘a Business Association, is being held at the State Building in Lihu‘e at 9 a.m.
Some of his main concerns, Bartolo said, are in the DOT’s proposal, called “Alternative One.” These include making the area makai of the Coco Palms Resort an eight-lane highway and building a new bridge over the Wailua River.
Bartolo said he will be bringing up a plan that would limit the highway to four lanes, starting at the Haleilio traffic light (near the Shell gas station) continuing to the other side of the Wailua Bridge. He also said that the KBA has been advised that rebuilding and strengthening, not replacing, the Wailua Bridge, is possible.
He said the KBA proposal would also try to get as much traffic off the highway as possible, by creating “connector” roads to the temporary Kapa‘a bypass road, which runs from Wailua to the center of Kapa‘a town. In the KBA proposal, a connector road would link the Safeway and Foodland shopping areas to the bypass, he said.
Bartolo said that funds had already been approved for the design phase for the connector road.
Some of the KBA’s other proposals include moving the wastewater station on the corner of Haleilio away from the restaurants and businesses on Kuhio Highway, and straightening and adding more lanes to the bypass road, he said.
He will also ask the DOT when and where the project will begin, he said.
