Transportation Update Re: Emergency Access Road and Alternate Route

Please see the update below provided by David Lawrence Brown, Chair of Wai`anae Neighborhood Board Transportation Committee.

Summary of Recent Email from Wayne Yoshioka, Director of City Dept. of Transportation Services:

Subject: RE: $400K Waianae Coast Emergency Access Road Study

This e-mail is to clarify what is happening regarding the Waianae Coast Emergency Access Route (WCEAR). . .The [$400,000 federal] earmark has not been used by the City. The City is implementing WCEAR completely with local City funds. WCEAR is not a separate roadway but a network of existing and new roads that allow traffic to be detoured around blockages of Farrington Highway. The existing roadways tend to be open to traffic all the time, but the new roads that were constructed to link together these existing roadways are for emergency purposes only and will be gated when not being used.

We have only two more roadways links that need to be constructed to provide a WCEAR from Waianae to Nanakuli: Helelua Place between Helelua Street and Lualualei Naval Road and Paakea Road between Lualualei Naval Road and Hakimo Road. These are currently under construction and are projected to be complete by September 2008.

I believe the project that [the State is] dealing with is to provide a second major access into the Waianae Coast. If there are more questions or comments, please call or e-mail.

A hui hou,

Wayne Y. Yoshioka

Director

Department of Transportation Services

City and County of Honolulu

650 South King Street, Third Floor

Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

ph. (808) 768-8303, fax (808) 523-4730

wyoshioka@honolulu.gov

Summary of Recent Email from State Department of Transportation Director Brennon Morioka:

Re: $400K Waianae Coast Emergency Access Road Study

This [federal] earmark has not been used by the City. Our research at this time is to see how the State might be able to use it for some of our planned work moving forward on some of the alternatives such as the Kole Kole Pass option which the DOT has been working with the military on its utilization and upgrade for the last year. Hope this answers your questions as there is nothing further to provide you in terms of how the earmark was used since it was not used nor is there a study that resulted from it.

Aloha

Brennon

Brennon.Morioka@hawaii.gov