The less-pleasant facts of island life include this one: If you live in a coastal community with a single major access route, evacuating that home in times of emergency, or even making the daily commute, could be at least frustrating, if not an outright danger. The worst of the range of possibilities was visited on Lahaina, costing lives and property, in the 2023 wildfires.
There is no doubt that Waianae Coast residents, who also face their share of fire hazards as well as regular traffic gridlock, are painfully aware of the ongoing transportation deficits linking the West Side to the rest of Oahu.
Above all, they are right to be vexed about relief of any sort taking so long to materialize. And, despite recent cuts in federal dollars for one key project, there needs to be a sustained priority placed upon making transportation options more robust for this part of the island.
These projects follow two tracks: first, to aid with emergency evacuation and, second, to make normal transit in and out of the Farrington Highway corridor more reliable.
In the first bucket is the Waianae Coast Emergency Access Route, a long-planned network of inland roads. The project, involving state, county, Navy and private landowners, is making final upgrades to the route, linking Mailiili, Paakea and Lualualei Naval roads to produce a bypass of the highway, reconnecting at Nanakuli. Some private stretches are gated, only to be opened in emergencies.
There is also the Kolekole Pass project, repairing this 1937-vintage military route from Lualualei to Schofield to the north and making it available in emergencies for civilian vehicles. It is a crucial alternative to Farrington Highway for exiting the coastal area altogether. And it does now seem to be making headway, surely spurred by concern about disaster risk, post-Lahaina.
On Capitol Hill, the current version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act includes requests by Hawaii’s congressional delegation for short- and long-term repairs and maintenance, in a coordinated effort by the Army, Navy and state and local agencies. These are difficult fiscal times but Hawaii’s delegation needs to remain vigilant to give the initiative its best funding chance.
The second track, though no less important, lies in making the more routine commutes more livable.
In that vein, it was disappointing to learn that a federal grant for $4.8 million to the City and County of Honolulu was cut by the federal administration, funds meant to underwrite a planning and engineering study for an 18-mile transit corridor between the Waianae Coast and the Skyline rail system.
Jon Nouchi, deputy director of the city Department of Transportation Services, said the city is reapplying for the grant, an effort to underscore its importance to the community of some 53,000 people and 12,000 jobs.
Persistence is key here. The idea, he said, is to explore various options for creating a transit corridor — likely a dedicated bus lane — to provide a real commuting alternative for those frequent traffic tie-ups that can immobilize Farrington Highway commuters for hours.
The grant request is titled “Transportation Equity for the Wai‘anae Coast: SkyBus to Skyline.” City officials have tried to address the inequity for years, Nouchi said, starting with Honolulu’s first 24/7 bus service, Route 40, from Makaha to Ala Moana. More recently, he added, bus route C is meant as an express, but more stops were added.
Now it’s time for government at all levels to keep these initiatives on the front burner, and deliver safety and convenience to neighborhoods that should not be cut off.
