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In the past 20 years, there were efforts by the county to improve South Kihei Road from McDonald's to Kaonoulu Street, which would have benefited the area with sidewalks, road improvements and drainage mitigation.
The first effort was in 2002 between McDonald's and Waiapo Street for $3.7 million; the second was in 2018 at the Kaonoulu Bridge at Kaonoulu St. for $4.7 million.
These were ready-to-go projects.
Unfortunately, the powers opposing the first project left the community with nothing. The second project, despite opposition, was stopped because federal guidelines could not be met for construction.
Today, EcoSolutions is proposing an alternative to the current county plan to control debris flowing through two major gulches to South Kihei during storms.
This is my two cents: Why not install one spillway at a strategic point within the gulch stream designed to capture debris to be cleared later?
Other debris retention methods could also be used. Maybe a multi-approach would be more successful than the two failed projects for South Kihei Road because of last-minute surprises.
Greg Kauwe
Kihei