Question: We can sympathize with the “auwe” re: the Tinman Triathlon in the Aug. 26 Kokua Line, where residents along Kalanianaole Highway were inconvenienced 30 minutes to move one block.
We experienced the same thing on Kamehameha Highway on Aug. 17 for the Reebok Spartan Sprint held at Kualoa Ranch. Fortunately, we were heading to Honolulu in the opposite direction. We witnessed traffic to Kualoa Ranch backed up all the way from Kaneohe. This impacted egress, ingress, not to mention city bus schedules. There is only one lane in each direction to and from Kaneohe to Haleiwa. I cannot imagine the chaos if an ambulance had to pass through. Who approves these permits? What are they thinking?
Question: Who allowed Kualoa Ranch to have a function so big that it in effect closed down Kamehameha Highway for most of Saturday, Aug. 17? They must have had a permit since they blocked off parking in front of the ranch. It took nearly two hours to get to Kaneohe from Kaaawa that morning and almost as much time to return in the early afternoon. In the evening, traffic was backed up eastbound to Kaaawa School.
Answer: The state Department of Transportation said it issued a permit for traffic signs to be posted along Kamehameha Highway fronting Kualoa Ranch that Saturday, with two sheriffs conducting traffic control at the entrance.
But that was all, because the Spartan Race was to take place on private property, said DOT spokeswoman Caroline Sluyter.
Meanwhile, Kualoa Ranch said measures were taken to mitigate traffic problems during the 5K obstacle-course race, but the turnout was larger than expected and that led to the traffic nightmare.
“We are very sorry that the Spartan Race caused such traffic problems,” said Kualoa Ranch President John Morgan. “We had very high hopes that the problems would be minimized due to a new traffic management technique we hadn’t previously considered, but it didn’t work out as planned.”
The plan was to create a third lane by setting out traffic cones, so that Kahuku-bound traffic would never be stopped.
“We asked the promoter to get the permission/permit to install and administer the three lanes to facilitate the parking ingress and egress, which they did,” Morgan said. “While they did have professional law enforcement assisting with the traffic, unfortunately, it didn’t work out as planned.”
The problem was that more people and cars than expected showed up, forcing the parking crew to abandon the entrance area so it could park cars elsewhere, he said.
About 6,000 people were involved in the event.
For future events, Morgan said, there are a number of ideas being considered to improve the parking/traffic plan, including limiting the number of people, not scheduling an event during days on which other big events are scheduled, and alerting the public about potential traffic delays.
Kualoa Ranch has followed up with the Honolulu Police Department, the neighborhood board and others on ways to minimize traffic problems.
“Again, we truly regret the unfortunate inconvenience that this event caused many members of our community,” Morgan said. “We would like to hold events like this in the future, but will take every effort to minimize the traffic problems.”
MAHALO
To the motorists passing by who offered assistance when my mother fell down as we were walking along 6th Avenue, attempting to cross Herbert Street/Kilauea Avenue a few Saturdays ago. One kind woman who was visiting her sister got out of a car to help me assist my mother after her fall. Then two other cars stopped to ask us if we needed assistance. My mother is fine and we truly appreciated the kind offers of assistance. — Grateful Daughter
