Construction on a long-awaited high school campus for Maui is expected to begin next year, after the state Legislature’s approval last month of $130 million for the project.

State budget officials said the appropriation for Kihei High School represents the single biggest project in the $3 billion, two-year capital improvements budget.

Sen. Roz Baker (D, West Maui-South Maui) said the Kihei community has been pushing for a high school since the 1990s. She said "the stars finally aligned" this session.

"Kihei is the fastest-growing community on Maui and largest community in the state with no high school," Baker said. The school could be ready for the 2016-17 school year, an environmental impact statement says.

More than 700 students from Kihei attend high schools outside of their community, resulting in overcrowding at Baldwin and Maui high schools in Kahului, each at least a 30-minute drive away. Maui High alone was over capacity by more than 200 students in the 2011-12 school year, according to the Department of Education.

"Getting the high school funded was my No. 1 priority," said Rep. Kaniela Ing (D, Kihei-Makena). "It’s everyone in Kihei’s No. 1 priority."

The new high school — projected to have a first-year population of 800 students and eventually 1,650 students — will be built on about 77 acres of vacant agricultural land mauka of Piilani Highway, according to the project’s final environmental impact statement, which Gov. Neil Abercrombie approved last year.

"The stars finally aligned," Baker said. "We’d been working with the Department of Education, the governor included it in his budget, Kaniela was on (the House Finance Committee), my colleagues knew it was something we needed. It’s too bad it took this long, but there is that light at the end of the tunnel now."

Ing credited an outpouring of supporting testimony from Kihei residents with helping the project gain support from legislators.

"It’s a huge ask and I owe a lot to my colleagues who prioritized the needs of our keiki over projects that may have been closer to home for them," he said.

Baker and Ing said the full $130 million is needed up front, rather than in phases, so that the state can put the entire project out to bid at once. The so-called design-build route will save an estimated $22 million to $25 million, Baker said.

While the funds won’t be released until fiscal 2015, Baker said she and Ing intend to work with the department’s school facilities branch and Abercrombie’s office to ensure the project moves along in the meantime. For example, land-use entitlements and permits still need to be obtained through Maui County and the state.

"What I’m hoping is that the DOE … can get everything pulled together, so come July 1 of next year, this is ready to go out to bid and we can just get started when money becomes available July 1, 2014," Baker said.

Construction would take about two years, according to the environmental review.

Kihei High will be the first Hawaii public high school built in more than a decade. Kapolei High was built in 2000 at a cost of $100 million.

A conceptual design for the Kihei campus calls for the sloping property to be graded with several tiers. Academic buildings would be clustered on the upper level; a stadium, athletics and physical education facilities on the midlevel; and athletics fields, landscaping and open space on the lower level next to the highway.

"Communities, at least in Hawaii, really come together around their high schools," Baker said. "It’ll be a unifying feature in South Maui."