KAPA‘A — Ground was blessed and broken for Section B of Ka Ala Hele Makalae, or the multi-use path, Monday morning. “I’m glad the county believes in pule,” said Jade Wai‘ale‘ale Battad of Ke Akua Mana Church who officiated over
KAPA‘A — Ground was blessed and broken for Section B of Ka Ala Hele Makalae, or the multi-use path, Monday morning.
“I’m glad the county believes in pule,” said Jade Wai‘ale‘ale Battad of Ke Akua Mana Church who officiated over the brief ceremony. “You never know what happened on this ground before and it’s good to have a blessing to make things pono.”
Lenny Rapozo, director of the county’s Parks and Recreation Department, said Section B of the multi-use path will connect the current end at Lihi Park along Moana Kai and Nuilani to reach the bridge at Safeway.
Earthworks Pacific has been contracted to do the work, which Jeff Fisher estimates will take about six months to complete, noting he will be using all-locally based subcontractors, which drew applause from the attending dignitaries.
“This is another example of teamwork between the state, county and even the community,” Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. said. “This project is special in that it will create more jobs and is just another step forward.”
Carvalho said the complexity of the project involved a lot of different people coming together to work things through to enable the project to move forward.
“This is a huge gift to the people for generations,” said JoAnn Yukimura, the Kaua‘i County Council Vice Chair, who represented Council Chair Jay Furfaro. “It’s a huge legacy and Kaua‘i is the envy of the other islands.”
Yukimura said the project, in addition to creating jobs in the construction industry, also helps with economic development of the community. Other communities around the island are asking about having similar paths in their towns.
“It’s good to see people in the construction industry at work,” Yukimura said. “The vision of Ke Ala Hele Makalae is from Nawiliwili to Anahola, and that means there will be construction jobs well into the future.”
Yukimura said it is hard not to recognize the efforts of former mayors Bryan Baptiste, who had a vision of providing shoreline access for Kaua‘i’s residents and visitors, and Maryanne Kusaka. In addition, Yukimura spoke of the efforts of Tim Bynum, who started work on the path before being elected to the council, Doug Haigh, the path’s project manager, and Thomas Noyes, who was instrumental in finding funding for the project.
Yukimura said the county has qualified for $32 million in federal monies for the project with the county, including in-kind and land matches, having to come up with $500,000.
Rapozo added the monies for the multi-use path are for use only on the path and was thankful the Neighbor Islands are eyeing the project, hinting there was that much less competition when the county applied for the funding requests.
