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With hurricane season officially underway, a pair of articles in Thursday's edition of this newspaper caught our eye.
In the first story, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono called for making the realignment of Honoapiilani Highway in Olowalu an infrastructure priority. The other piece reported how consultants discovered significant storm damage to Kukuiula Bridge on Hana Highway between Kipahulu and Kaupo.
Kukuiula Bridge is expected to be closed for at least two months as it undergoes repairs. While the closure is humbug for area residents, business owners and day-trippers hoping to circle Haleakala, we are lucky the damage was discovered before the bridge suffered a catastrophic failure.
The same goes for Honoapiilani Highway. It is fortunate this vital lifeline to West Maui is finally drawing the attention of people who can put their hands on the money and resources to move its realignment to the front burner. Hopefully, the issues facing this low-lying roadway can also be remedied before catastrophe strikes.
Just imagine the disruption to this island and its economy if Honoapiilani Highway were closed for an extended period of time. It could happen. Rising seas and eroding coastline mean the ocean-side asphalt is already in imminent danger of being undermined by waves. The road is also vulnerable to flooding from the valleys of Olowalu and Ukumehame. As one Lahaina resident put it this week, "We are living on borrowed time over here."
For the record, NOAA's Central Pacific Hurricane Center and NOAA's Climate Prediction Center are forecasting below-normal tropical cyclone activity for Hawaii this year. The experts say the ongoing La Niña should make it difficult for hurricanes to develop and move about the Central Pacific.
Even if Maui skates through hurricane season unscathed, that doesn't mean a moist tropical depression can't park over the West Maui Mountains and dump a foot of rain in an hour. As we learned last year in Kula, Kihei and Haiku, a storm doesn't need a name to cause havoc.
While driving back and forth from Lahaina, we pass over numerous little culverts and bridges. All it would take is for one of those culverts to become clogged with storm debris during a flash-flooding event to see a substantial section of highway swept away.
We're wondering if anybody has dusted off Maui County's 2005 Pali to Puamana Parkway Master Plan. Championed by former Planning Director Mike Foley, the proposed $108.8-million project called for moving the entire 8-mile stretch of highway inland and creating parks and open space in the resulting void. Where appropriate, existing roadway would be transitioned into parking lots, bikeways and emergency access roads.
We liked the concept in 2005 and still do. While Maui has the attention of the movers and shakers, why not push for a comprehensive fix to this vulnerable stretch of highway? It would be a far better solution than taking a piecemeal approach.