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KAHULUI - To the surprise of some Maui government officials, the state Department of Transportation has placed "on hold" its nearly $60-million long-awaited access road and parking lot expansion for the Kahului Airport until sometime next year.

Construction was set to begin before the end of this year, providing dozens of good-paying jobs well into 2012, said state House of Representatives Transportation Committee Chairman Rep. Joe Souki, whose district includes Wailuku.

The airport access road is essentially a bypass that connects Kuihelani and Mokulele highways to the airport via an access road that now dead ends at the Home Depot and runs parallel to congested Dairy Road.

When complete, the access road will allow motorists to drive almost directly from either highway to the airport without traveling on Dairy Road. The plans do call for the access road to cross Hana Highway, which will require a new stoplight.

Meanwhile, the airport parking lot expansion project will add 1,930 stalls, about doubling current capacity. It's estimated to cost about $16 million.

"I'm very displeased and wasn't aware of this, I must confess," Souki said on Saturday. "I think these projects are very important, and it has nothing to do with the state budget (which is projected to have a $1 billion deficit through June of 2011). What's the problem? We have enough money in the transportation fund to pay the debt."

DOT Director Brennon Morioka said that the state chose in September 2008 not to float $430 million in airport revenue bonds to fund the work, and other similar capital improvement projects state-wide, because of the poor economic climate at the time. The result would have left taxpayers open to high-than-usual interest rates on the bond debt service, he said.

But financial markets have recently undergone a favorable shift, Morioka said, and the state is floating the bonds now. He expects a single-day sale to a financial service company by the first week of January, he said.

However, there is no timeline yet for when actual construction will begin on the access road and parking lot projects, Morioka said.

"Because things have improved and the timing is right in the bond markets, we are able to go back out and sell the bonds and move forward on our projects once again, to the point where we are ramping up our construction schedule to make up for some of the lost time and get work on the street to help create more jobs for our residents," Morioka said.

Maui County Council Member Mike Victorino said he was disappointed with the access delay because the projects were expected to produce perhaps 100 jobs or more for a couple years.

However, Victorino also added that he believes this is only a temporary setback and understands that the economic conditions for a bond sale last year were not good for the state.

Rep. Angus McKelvey, whose district includes West Maui and north Kihei, said the delay is sad news since people need those jobs now, but you just can't sell bonds during a meltdown. The state would will probably get full value now versus pennies on the dollar a year ago - when it might not have gotten any buyers at all. Still, McKelvey said he also was not made aware of the decision to hold the project and thought construction was proceeding as planned to begin this month or next.

The state Airports Division also canceled another roughly $7 million in airport heliport and firefighting improvement projects because a new helicopter vendor came in and Federal Aviation Administration rules were revised, respectively, Morioka said.

At the same time, though, it's not all bad news for construction workers at the airport. The federal government has spent about $25 million to date to upgrade and add U.S. Homeland Security equipment at Kahului Airport.

McKelvey said that the access road completion can't come soon enough.

"That road is really important because right now you have a situation where everybody who uses the airport has to use the same road, which causes major traffic and chaos," he said.

With a dedicated airport access road or bypass, the pressure will be taken off of Dairy Road, making it safer and much more pleasant for local drivers.

"It has gotten better, but unfortunately, that's because tourism is down, and we have less people coming in now," McKelvey said.

* Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com.