Senators: Bypass taking too long

The Maui News
Wednesday, April 06, 2005

By ILIMA LOOMIS, Staff Writer

WAILUKU – Maui's senators have called on the state to speed up plans for a permanent Paia bypass highway – one that would allow through traffic to get around the bottleneck in Paia town.

Sen. Shan Tsutsui said funds for the project were approved by the Legislature last year, but work still hasn't started.

"We've been waiting a long time. I think the Legislature has done what it needed to do," he said. "It's a matter of prioritization by the department."

"This is not acceptable," Sen. J. Kalani English said in a written statement. "This bypass should be built as quickly as possible, because the need for it exists now."

The senators initially raised concerns about a Department of Transportation report that said the bypass wouldn't be complete until 2017.

But DOT spokesman Scott Ishikawa said the report sent to senators was not accurate. The current schedule will have the Paia bypass finished by early 2012 – after two years of planning, a year of land acquisition, two years of design and two years of construction.

"Probably the biggest hurdle is going to be the planning stage," Ishikawa said. "If there's any opposition, it will probably come during that stage."

Planning for the project was originally supposed to start late last year; now it's expected to start this summer. Ishikawa said he didn't know why the planning phase was already behind schedule.

Tsutsui said the conflicting reports just added to his frustration and his sense of being left out of the loop.

"They haven't sent me that supposedly corrected version," he said. "I'm not really sure what's going on."

He also said the shorter timeline still wasn't good enough.

"No, I'm not satisfied with 2012. I don't think people want to wait another seven years, and I don't want to wait either."

In the same written statement as her colleagues, Sen. Rosalyn Baker said she was frustrated by delays in the Lahaina mini-bypass.

"That project has been fully funded, and the community was told that DOT would break ground last December," she wrote. "The DOT needs to improve its systems so that critical highway improvement projects can be completed in a timely fashion – especially when funding is available."

But Ishikawa said the DOT expected to award a contract on the project soon, and start work by summer. He felt Baker's statement was misleading.

"It was under this administration that the timetable for the Lahaina mini-bypass got bumped up," he said.

Tsutsui said colleagues from around the state were frustrated that important road projects or bypasses have not been moving forward.

"We've been eagerly anticipating these projects and they don't seem to be happening," he said.

Ilima Loomis can be reached at iloomis@mauinews.com.

Copyright © 2005 The Maui News

Original article: http://www.mauinews.com/print_version.aspx?id=7611

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