Heloshi Kusumoto / 1929-2018: Highway chief led H-3 construction

Heloshi Kusumoto, who helped to lead the design and controversial construction of the H-3 freeway as administrator of the Hawaii Division of the Federal Highways Administration, has died at age 89.

Kusumoto, who died of brain cancer in Montana on Nov. 22, was a career federal highways engineer who came to Hawaii in 1971 and settled with his family in Lanikai.

He was promoted to chief of the Hawaii Division in 1977 and retired a decade later as construction of the interstate was beginning in earnest following years of delays and legal challenges.

Neal Kusumoto, his only son, said his father’s job was extremely stressful with the project facing lots of opposition.

“He faced so many difficult and emotional issues,” the son said. “He had to go to many hearings, which were filled with shouting people who did not want to build the highway. I went once. It was chaotic and fierce. There were no holds barred.”

Then-U.S. Sen. Daniel Ino- uye had the highway exempted from environmental laws in 1986, the final hurdle to building H-3. Kusumoto retired the next year.

For a half-dozen years during retirement, the elite fly-fisherman and avid golfer spent summers with his wife, Peggy, in their native Montana and winters in Makaha.

H-3 is believed to be the most expensive interstate highway ever built on a cost-per-mile basis. Its final price tag was $1.3 billion — about $80 million per mile.

“I think he lost a few years and got lots of gray hair, but he never talked about it at home,” said Neal Kusumoto, who graduated from ‘Iolani School in 1977. “Next time you drive on H-3, notice that the pull-out lane is very wide. Part of the deal to get the highway approved was that it could only be two lanes wide; my dad made enough room to add a third lane in the future.”

A memorial service will be held May 11 in Whitefish, Mont.