Kona KTSC Weblog

From the County of Hawaii:
News Release
January 30, 2007

Contact Person: Bruce C. McClure, P.E.
Director, Department of Public Works
(808) 961-8321 Monday – Friday 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m
After Hours: (808) 557-6437
http://www.co.hawaii.hi.us/ Click on Public Works

TWO MORE WEEKS OF TRAFFIC TESTING
FOR HONALO JUNCTION, KAINALIU

County Public Works will extend the traffic mitigation measures at Honalo Junction through Friday, February 16.

Since Monday, January 22, the County has been testing a new traffic flow measure at the Honalo Junction. Between the hours of 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, motorists traveling south on the old Māmalahoa Highway are ONLY able to turn right (down toward Kailua) just prior to the Honalo Junction. Traffic is NOT able to enter the south flow of traffic on Highway 11.

This test is an effort to address traffic issues in mauka Kona during peak afternoon travel hours by reducing traffic along the old Māmalahoa Highway and traffic congestion in South Kona.

“The goal is to pinpoint the area(s) of congestion,” said Bruce McClure, Public Works director. “We are taking a wait and see attitude regarding the testing and our permit actually allows us to keep this test going for up to 90 days.”

So far, McClure said, there have been some encouraging results.

“Motorists who use the route every day have reported a decrease in their commute time ranging from 10 to 25 minutes since we started the test,” said McClure, adding, “on average there are close to 750 cars per hours traveling through Honalo, or 2,057 over a three-hour period.”

Prior to the test, he continued, between 19-26% of motorists used Highway 180 to travel south and merge onto Highway 11. Although this traffic has been diverted onto Highway 11, traffic still continues to move smoother.

This week an additional experimental traffic measure will be tested in Kainaliu. From January 29 through February 2, the diagonal parking in front of Oshima’s store will be closed off. Only parallel parking will be allowed.
Public Works will monitor this situation to see if the parking closure, in addition to the closure of Honalo Junction, allows for a smoother traffic flow. A police officer will be stationed at Oshima’s to insure that only parallel parking occurs.

A comparison of the first and second week will be made by Public Works, said McClure.

“While we anticipate there may be longer lines of cars, we also expect traffic to move smoother and will be measuring the flow of traffic,” he added.

To further facilitate traffic flow in South Kona, new construction hours of 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday-Friday, will be instituted for roadwork in the Kealakekua and Captain Cook areas.

For 24-hour information about road updates call 334-9559 and for specifics about this project contact Bruce McClure, 961-8321.

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This email was forwarded to KTSC through Harold Murata as a reference to articles and initiatives inline with the organization mission. Comments are welcome.

If you have trouble reading this email, go to the online version.

Traffic Engineering Council UPDATEWinter 2007 E-Newsletter
Volume 13, Issue 1David E. Woosley, P.E. (F), Editor

Chair’s Message
Letter to the Editor
Hot Topics on the Traffic Engineering Council Listserv
Tips and Trends in Transportation
MUTCD
MUTCD discussion group
U.K. hard shoulder trial not a safety risk, say consultants
Traffic Safety Facts: 2005 Annual Report
Making ABS brakes screech
U.S. DOT strategic plan
Just push the button
ACCESS magazine
Honda’s safety drive for motorbikes
Directions
European road safety measures trigger debate
Lighting the way
Pedestrian safety at midblock locations
Gridlock for U.S. roads?
Smoking ban vs. transportation industry
Navteq launches full coverage map of Australia
Grant to launch connected vehicle proving center
Snow belt striping issues
Tactile arrows
Reasonable Speed Limits on Suburban Multilane Highways with Curbs
HOV Lanes on Arterials

The Department of Transportation (DOT) is soliciting public comments on proposed Amendment #8 to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 to 2008 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP).

The STIP identifies projects programmed for Federal Highway or Transit Funding. An amendment reflects changes to FHWA-funded projects located throughout the state, including West Hawaii. DOT provides the following link to review the amendment:
http://www.hawaii.gov/dot/stp/stip/fy2006-2008amend.htm

The public comment deadline is Friday, January 26, 2007 by mail, fax, or email to:

Highway Planning Branch
869 Punchbowl Street, Room 301
Honolulu, HI 96813

email: hwy.stip.projects@ hawaii.gov
fax: (808) 587-1787

Kona Traffic Safety Committee

January 12, 2007

Bruce McClure, Director
Dep’t. of Public Works
County of Hawaii
101 Pauahi St.
Hilo, HI 96720

Re: Honalo Junction Experiment

Dear Mr. McClure:

The Kona Traffic Safety Committee wishes to express concern over your planned experiment to close southbound access to Hwy 11 at Honalo Junction on weekdays between the hours of 3:00 and 6:30 pm. This experiment, unfortunately, will not alleviate the southbound congestion at Honalo Junction which starts farther south, in Kainaliu, and recurs in Kealekekua and Captain Cook. Nor will it control the speeding through Holualoa, because southbound drivers will still seek to avoid congestion on Hwy 11 by using Hwy 180 through Holualoa until its junction with Hwy 11 near Puuloa.

Commendably, your department has begun work in Captain Cook and Kealekekua to alleviate the Hwy 11 congestion there. But the congestion at Honalo Junction is only the tail end of the southbound parking lot that is Hwy 11; a parking lot that starts in Puuloa, just south of the Hwy 180/Hwy 11 intersection. In fact, your experiment will:

1) add many more vehicles to the Hwy 11 congestion leading up to Honalo, the tail end of the southbound congestion;
2) do nothing to relieve the southbound Hwy 11 congestion between Honalo Junction and Captain Cook;
3) greatly inconvenience residents of Keauhou Mauka and Holualoa, who will have to drive miles out of their way to travel south of Honalo Junction;
4) effectively close the only southbound alternate route between Keauhou Mauka and Honalo Junction; and
5) be life-threatening if Keauhou Mauka and Holualoa residents have to go to Kona Hospital for emergency treatment in the late afternoon.

We understand that concern has been expressed regarding speeders on Mamalahoa Hwy, but believe that a better way to curb speeding is to increase enforcement. Added manpower won’t be needed, because the extra police needed to enforce the detour at Honalo Junction could be used instead to cite speeders. And as we noted above, the experiment won’t curb speeding on Hwy 180 from Palani Road through Holualoa to the Hwy 180/Hwy 11 intersection north of Puuloa. Furthermore, the additional vehicles seeking to enter southbound Hwy 11 at that intersection and at Kalelei Street because of the experiment will face significant safety hazards.

We strongly urge you to rethink this experiment and continue to focus on improving Hwy 11 southbound traffic flow where the southbound congestion begins, in Kainaliu and at its head in Captain Cook, rather than at its tail, at Honalo Junction. If, after appropriate improvements, including the Hokulia bypass, have been completed, and traffic enforcement has been increased, southbound traffic on Hwy 11 through Kainaliu has not improved and speeding on Hwy 180 remains a problem, the experiment can be reconsidered.

Sincerely,

Joel Gimpel
Chair, Public Affairs

Cc: Brenda Ford
Pete Hoffman

http://starbulletin.com/breaking/breaking.php?id=5315

A banner across the television screen provided an alert to the tsunami warning generated by a reported 8.3 earthquake off the Kiril Islands in the West Pacific.

There is no doubt that the 2004 tsunami has kept us all aware of the dangers, and the October earthquake is more than enough reminder that we need information.

The breaking news from the Star Bulletin states that the situation is being monitored.

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/latest
The link above is the shortcut to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center Bulletin (accessed on the site by clicking on the map at the “bulls eye”).

Pacific Tsunami Warning Center – Ewa Beach (Home Page)
http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/

As of 9:00 p.m., a conference call was in progress among the several monitoring sites to determine the tsunami warning status – currently set as a watch for the Hawai’i area.

As of 9:30 p.m., the tsunami watch/warning was cancelled for all areas.