State opts for small projects over big

SECOND OF TWO PARTS

Fallout from the state’s backlog of federally funded highway projects will affect Hawaii motorists for years as the state Department of Transportation halts work on some complex, large-scale projects that would increase road capacity and ease traffic flow.

Instead, the state plans to focus on maintenance and safety improvements of existing roadways.

State officials have announced that they are deferring planning and design work indefinitely on some high-profile projects, including the long-awaited Kawaihae Bypass Road on Hawaii island and the Kapaa Relief Route on Kauai, decisions that were greeted with dismay by some neighbor island residents.

Rather than build those projects, the state is focusing on more modest highway maintenance, repaving and repair projects that are easier to quickly push into construction, said Edwin Sniffen, deputy director of the state Department of Transportation.

This shift allows the state to satisfy federal demands that Hawaii move more quickly to spend down hundreds of millions of dollars in federal highway funding that is backlogged at the state level. This backlog is known locally as the "pipeline."

The Federal Highways Administration has warned it might pull back funding for new projects unless the state streamlines its bureaucracy to move that roadwork into construction more quickly.

The state Highways Division has about 570 federally funded projects that are technically still open, although some of those are old projects that were effectively completed but never formally closed out.

Realistically, Sniffen said, the highways staff can deliver on only about 200 to 300 projects. One of the priorities is to cull the list of open projects down, which means "we’ll be making some tough decisions as we go forward," he said.

Deferring major projects such as Kawaihae Bypass or Kapaa Relief road allows the state to free up millions of federal dollars that had been earmarked for planning and design work for those projects. This money can be redirected to other projects that are closer to being ready to begin construction on, Sniffen said.

"Looking at the program itself, the funding that we have, the resources that we have, we’ll not get to it," Sniffen said of those large projects. "I mean, it’s not something that’s going to be prioritized over something we can do sooner rather than later. So, we’re making a decision to stop moving forward on those projects at this time."

Timothy Sakahara, spokes­man for the state Department of Transportation, said the department cannot identify any Oahu projects that likewise will be deferred.

The delayed neighbor island projects are part of a larger policy change to overhaul the priorities of the department and the way highway work gets done in Hawaii.

The backlog of unspent federal highway funds peaked at $940 million in 2010, and at that time the state was steering 68 percent of federal highways funding to projects that would increase highway capacity and reduce congestion, according to data provided by the state.

Meanwhile the state was directing only 13 percent of federal highway funds at that time to "system preservation," meaning maintenance and safety improvements, Sniffen said.

Now the state is promising federal officials it will upend those 2010 priorities by applying 63 percent of federal highways funding to safety improvements and maintenance projects, and only 35 percent of the money to larger projects that increase capacity and reduce congestion.

"The two things that everybody wants are safety and better roads, so we’re pushing more of our money into system preservation-type projects," Sniffen said. "You’ll see a lot more repaving, reconstruction, guardrail improvement, bridge repair, those types of projects, because we want to make sure we make what we have work better. If we cannot maintain what we have, then we shouldn’t push forward on any newer facilities."

The Kapaa project was supposed to ease the flow of traffic in East Kauai on Kuhio Highway between Hanamaulu and Kapaa Stream, including the commercial district of Kapaa. That portion of highway regularly becomes so jammed that frustrated residents report it can take them 45 minutes to travel a mile.

Planning for the Kapaa Relief project was first initiated in 1992 but was shelved in 1999. The state later revived the effort and prepared an environmental impact statement in 2002. Sniffen said the project is now expected to cost $560 million, money the state doesn’t have.

State Senate President Ron Kouchi (D, Kauai-Nii­hau) said state officials have met with the county and Kapaa residents to develop a list of more modest road improvements to help ease traffic flow. Kouchi said he is waiting to see that list.

"In this case we were going to be short of the money, so why would we spend the money on planning for a plan that we couldn’t get done?" he said. "At least we’re going to try to do some short-term improvements that will hopefully bring some level of relief right now, and clearly we’d like to take advantage of the federal money that we have."

But the state’s decision to delay some long-planned, large-scale projects is frustrating to residents who have waited and lobbied for major new projects.

Gunner Mench, a Hawaii island resident and chairman of the South Kohala Traffic Safety Committee, said that if the state suspends or scraps efforts to build the Kawaihae Bypass, it is essentially ignoring what Mench describes as "the biggest bottleneck on the island" in Wai­mea.

The proposed 14.5-mile bypass project in South Kohala would divert traffic away from the overburdened Kawaihae Road, which was built in 1934. Mench said the existing road has 38 turns and follows a steep route from Wai­mea to the ocean.

"This has been on everyone’s radar for over 50 years because they knew that the paved-over cattle trail that is the current Kawaihae Road was insufficient" to handle the logging and fuel trucks shuttling to and from Kawaihae Harbor today, he said.

But the Kawaihae Bypass project from Wai­mea to Kawaihae Harbor would cost $270 million, and Sniffen said he has already told the community the state is deferring the project indefinitely.

"They don’t like it, they don’t agree with it, but that’s the decision we have to make moving forward," he said.

Senate Transportation and Energy Chairwoman Lorraine Ino­uye (D, Kaupu­lehu-Wai­mea-North Hilo) said the state strategy of delaying some large projects is acceptable for now, but "eventually something has to give on the big projects, I would think."

In particular, Ino­uye said, she has been approached by people who are upset at the delays in the Kawaihae Bypass project, which she said is needed to provide traffic relief in "a major trucking thoroughfare."

Since the beginning of this year, Sniffen said, the state has freed up $45 million in federal funds either by shifting money that was earmarked for major projects now being deferred, or releasing money designated for old construction projects. In some cases the money was not actually needed for construction, but the old projects were never closed out.

Sniffen estimates the state can release a total of about $100 million in federal funds that are earmarked for other projects and funnel that money back into other roadwork that can be done quickly.

When the state releases funds from one project, it must immediately redirect that funding into a new Hawaii project, and Sniffen said the Federal Highways Administration has been supportive of those efforts.

"They’ve always told us that they’re not in the business of taking back their money, so they’re going to be helping us out as we go forward," he said.