Kona KTSC Weblog

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