The Hawai‘i Department of Transportation has budgeted more than $136 million for Kaua‘i roads. According to Hawai‘i State DOT Deputy Director for Capital Improvements, Jadine Urasaki, the funds will pay for construction projects in Lihu‘e and along the eastside corridor.
The Hawai‘i Department of Transportation has budgeted more than $136 million for Kaua‘i roads. According to Hawai‘i State DOT Deputy Director for Capital Improvements, Jadine Urasaki, the funds will pay for construction projects in Lihu‘e and along the eastside corridor. They’ll also cover maintenance, repair and safety improvements around the island.
Urasaki presented the transportation overview at a Lihu‘e Business Association program last Thursday.
It was one of many the LBA has held about planning issues in the past six years. Such programs are a means of fulfilling the organization’s goal to assure a prosperous future for Kaua‘i.
The LBA has established five roles it can play to ensure that goal:
• Enhance regional business objectives: Economic prosperity is basic to a vigorous community, though successful businesses are a means to, not the definition of, a great society.
• Provide a mechanism for networking: Aloha breathes. We increase the breadth and depth of civic engagement—and the chance of success—when we know, care about, and work together as friends, neighbors, colleagues.
• Play an active role in master planning: Our society—and this world—is grappling with big Issues such as environmental degradation and resource depletion, educational and healthcare inadequacies, and social justice failures. While the LBA strives to “think globally,” we are working to “act locally” by encouraging and participating in both governmental and organizational planning activities.
• Provide a voice to all levels of government: Monthly topical programs are the most visible aspect of LBA’s work. They’re held to illuminate the myriad facets creating “community,” from sustainability issues to activities of neighborhood organizations.
The bulk of LBA programs revolve around governmental topics such as planning, water, sewage, trash, education, public housing, and transportation.
These informal programs are free and open to anyone interested; they provide an arena for government officials to hold a two-way conversation with us as an engaged public.
• Assist in evolving community development: While economic well-being is essential to a great society, the overall vitality of that community lies in its social, cultural and environmental prosperity. Broad-based collaboration among government officials, business owners, nonprofit personnel and other residents is necessary to achieve that end. LBA membership is comprised of individuals — there is no business or organizational category — who are willing to personally and collectively make a distinctive impact on Kaua‘i over time.
In her presentation at the Thursday LBA program, Urasaki mentioned the DOT’s Long Range Land Transportation plan-in-progress for Kaua‘i.
That plan will guide the state’s thinking for years to come about how and where to move people and goods.
It can pave the way to livable, sustainable communities or present stumbling blocks to it.
Several LBA members served on the plan’s Citizens Advisory Committee.
Many encouraged the adoption of multimodal transportation concepts — systems that support public transit, bikes and pedestrians as well as cars — as an integral part of the plan.
LBA looks forward to hosting an upcoming program for the DOT to unveil its plan as a new path to Kauai’s prosperous future.
• Pat Griffin is president of the Lihu‘e Business Association.
