Trending
Maui's most dangerous shortcut, Hansen Road, got a little safer this week.
The new four-way stop installed at the intersection of Hansen and Pulehu roads is a common-sense fix that could well save lives. It allows drivers on Pulehu to cross and turn safely through an intersection where they once had to go for broke. Hansen's new flashing stop signs force drivers to slow to a halt where they once zoomed through the dicey crossroads.
Anyone who has driven down Pulehu Road can attest to the leap of faith it took to cross or turn left onto Hansen. Unless you were sitting in the cab of a tall truck, or knew just where to position your vehicle, there was a blind spot due to the hill on the right.
One would have expected that blind spot to go away when Hansen Road was closed for seven months in 2015 to be rebuilt, but it didn't. Just as a nearby sharp curve remains banked the wrong way and a low spot on the Kihei side of the intersection is still prone to flooding.
It makes you wonder what Conrad "Pops" Hansen would say about the 1.3-mile road named in his honor. The immigrant born in Norway, Dec. 21, 1862, worked for Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar from 1891-1933. According to an obituary in this newspaper, he was "known as one of the most skillful steam plow engineers in the business." He was also active in community organizations.
The obituary printed after his death, July 14, 1946, conveys the sense Hansen was truly admired. It includes these passages:
"His life's story is a shining example of the opportunities that are open to the young, ambitious man who applies himself to his task. Success did not come easy to this young immigrant boy a half century ago, but it came because of a diligent persistent desire to learn and improve himself. The young man of today could well follow his example.
" 'Pop' Hansen lived a full life and he lived it well, with everlasting credit to himself and his family."
Our earliest memories of Hansen Road are inexorably linked to the sugar plantation where the expert plowman reshaped the valley for 42 years. The winding lane passed the hub of the frenetic operation, Puunene Mill, a living, breathing creature that belched steam 24 hours a day during the nine-month harvest. Ditches running along Hansen wafted a putrid sugary scent. Motorists regularly had to yield to tractors, trucks and cane fires.
Through the years, we have covered our share of traffic accidents on Hansen, some of them fatal. One of those tragic fatalities came in 2018 on the wrongly banked curve.
We give Maui County an A+ for the four-way stop and wonder if a modern roundabout is the next logical step. First, however, how about doing something to fix that deadly turn?