Residents express mixed emotions on Lahaina bypass

LAHAINA - Lahaina residents said Wednesday they were relieved work would start this month on the first phase of the Lahaina bypass.

But some were angry the project turned Ikena Avenue into a highway bisecting the Kelawea Mauka subdivision and cutting off vehicles and foot traffic through the neighborhood.

Kelawea resident Chris Breckels said children walking home from schools above the neighborhood commonly cross Ikena to get home or visit a shave-ice truck. A new overpass on Lahainaluna Road will have a pedestrian pathway, but local roads in Kelawea Mauka won't connect, so neighborhood children would have to make a long detour to get through, he said.

"You're severing the top subdivision from the bottom subdivision," Breckels said.

He hoped the county would consider extending one of the roads in the neighborhood, such as Hakau or Hokeo streets, to provide a more direct link with the pedestrian walkway.

Work is scheduled to begin next week on the southern portion of the first phase of the long-awaited bypass road.

A draft environmental assessment is being finalized for the northern portion of the project, which had to be realigned and redesigned to avoid an archaeological site.

An archaeological survey of the new route found two piles of rocks cleared from fields in the plantation era, said archaeologist Hal Hammett of Cultural Surveys Hawaii. Tests of the piles showed no ancient sites or bones underneath.

The draft environmental assessment can be downloaded on-line at tinyurl.com/6sba9f. Comments are due by Jan. 7.

The new alignment brings the highway makai of the original route to a modified intersection at Keawe Street, which is being extended by Maui County to connect to the bypass highway. The complete bypass is planned to continue around the Kaanapali Resort to connect with Honoapiilani Highway at Honokowai.

Phase 1A is expected to be completed in two years, and will create an alternate route for traffic on Lahainaluna Road.

Work starting this month will include preparation of a detour route around Lahainaluna Road, as well as the addition of 12 parking stalls at Kelawea Park. In mid-March, crews will close a portion of Ikena Avenue for work on the new highway, and around June the rest of Ikena will be closed.

While the original cost of the project was $48 million, that is being renegotiated with contractor Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co. and could change as a result of the realignment, said state Transportation Director Brennon Morioka.

Many Lahaina residents said they were thrilled work was finally starting on the long-awaited bypass that eventually will offer an alternative route around Lahaina and also for the schools and homes along Lahainaluna Road.

Lahainaluna High School teacher Julie Dicker said she was concerned about the safety of 2,300 students in the three-school complex being evacuated in an emergency.

"It's one road in, one road out," she said. "Please give them a safe exit."

Lahaina Intermediate School 8th-grader Hayden Bogar said traffic after school was "really nuts."

"If something happened, it would be best if there was another way out," he said.

Carol Reimann, executive director of the Maui Hotel & Lodging Association, said the bypass was overdue.

"If we felt we needed this bypass 20 years ago, take a look at our traffic now," she said.

But Lahaina resident and Native Hawaiian expert and activist Keeamoku Kapu said the project would have too much impact on archaeological sites and historic areas.

"I don't like it," he said.

Hawaiian cultural expert Ed Lindsey agreed the community was losing too many cultural sites, but said safety had to come first.

"I am not willing to sacrifice the life of one moopuna, one child, for all the archaeological sites, the iwi (bones), everything," he said.

Lori Sablas, who commutes to Lahaina from Kihei every day, said she felt bad about community division over the project, but felt it was time to be "realistic."

"We need to be sensitive, but I think we need to move forward," she said.

Information on the project can be found at www6.hawaii.gov/dot/publicaffairs/ lahainabypass.

* Ilima Loomis can be reached at iloomis@mauinews.com.

*This story includes a correction to the name of the contractor for the project.