KILAUEA – The heavily traveled Kilauea Road was closed Wednesday as a county Department of Public Works crew worked on a culvert-maintenance project. Shelly Spencer, a Kilauea Neighborhood Association board member and a daily walker on Kilauea Road, watched the
KILAUEA – The heavily traveled Kilauea Road was closed Wednesday as a county Department of Public Works crew worked on a culvert-maintenance project.
Shelly Spencer, a Kilauea Neighborhood Association board member and a daily walker on Kilauea Road, watched the work progress from the shade in the Kilauea Dispensary Park.
“It’s funny how people come up to the ‘Road Closed’ sign, and make a U-turn back down,” she observed.
Meanwhile, motorists wanting to access the business district of Kilauea as well as the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge and the Kilauea Lighthouse had to follow the detour signs along Oka Road, emerging at a point just makai of the Kilauea Neighborhood Center before rejoining Kilauea Road.
Spencer recollects how the road had become faulty through heavy usage over the years. This was brought up at one of the county’s Ka Leo O Kaua‘i meetings.
This was followed up by an inspection from officials in the DPW’s Division of Engineering, the arrival of material for the repair and upgrading of the system all leading to the road closure Wednesday, Spencer noted.
Tim Bynum, the county Offices of Community Assistance community response specialist for the North Shore, said the culvert-maintenance project was one of the early issues brought up at one of the first Ka Leo meetings in the area.
Gary Heu, the mayor’s administrative assistant, is a resident of Kilauea, and he and others from the KNA board and association worked to get the project scheduled quickly, Bynum said.
“This is one of the ways the Ka Leo meetings work,” Bynum said. “The Ka Leo meetings contributed to the acceleration of the process and communicates to the community on the status of the project.
“Our community, again, has gotten support from the county by having the opportunity to go to the Ka Leo meetings and letting our voices be heard,” said Spencer, who regularly attends the Ka Leo meetings.
Bynum explained that the project was brought into focus by the Ka Leo meetings, and the repair process accelerated because of that focus.
Realizing the heavy usage of the “main road” through Kilauea town, Bynum said the county worked on how to reduce the amount of time the road would have to be closed.
After checking with John Apana of DPW, Bynum reported that the road-closure phase is completed. Repair and maintenance work will continue on both sides of the road shoulder, but that will not result in a full road closure. According to Bynum, one lane will be kept open during that phase of the work.
Bynum said, “Ka Leo meetings make things happen that would otherwise not take place, or it can help accelerate and expedite a problem that is taking place.”
“We, the Kilauea community, would like to thank Mayor Bryan Baptiste for all the support we have seen take place from our participation in the monthly meetings,” Spencer said. “We’re thankful that he has given this opportunity to all the communities across the island at the Ka Leo meetings.”
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
