LIHU‘E — The state Department of Land and Natural Resources will close the access road to Polihale State Park on Monday for several days, according to a press release. The closure is to allow emergency construction repairs on the road,
LIHU‘E — The state Department of Land and Natural Resources will close the access road to Polihale State Park on Monday for several days, according to a press release.
The closure is to allow emergency construction repairs on the road, as part of work being done for the Agribusiness Development Corporation, which hired TOMCO to install a culvert that will cross the Polihale access road in order to improve the drainage for the surrounding farm fields, and to prevent flooding on the road, the release said.
ADC is the state agency that manages more than 12,500 acres of farmland on the Kekaha-Mana coastal plain of Southwestern Kaua‘i.
Construction is expected to take between two to five days. Polihale State Park access road will be closed, but the public will temporarily be able to access the park via the private Kekaha Agriculture Association Co-op road, which runs parallel to the park road and intersects with it about halfway to the beach park.
“This is a win-win project and a welcome improvement to help address past problems with flooding that has affected farm fields, damaged the park access road, and inconvenienced the public with closures and the department with costly repairs,” said DLNR Chair Laura H. Thielen in the release.
The temporary alternate entrance from the paved Kaumuali’i highway onto the normally locked Co-op’s road is located about 1/4 mile past the entrance to Polihale Park access road.
The culvert will be built about half-way between the access road bridge, which an army of community volunteers repaired in March 2009, and where the Co-op private road intersects with Polihale Road.
During construction, the contractor will place safety barricades and directional signage to notify traffic going to the beach park that the Polihale Road turn-off is closed, and to take the next left alternative access road. Returning traffic will also be directed via safety barricade(s) with blinking lights and/or reflectors for evening directions.
For more information, visit the DLNR and state Department of Agriculture Web sites at www.hawaii.gov.
