A community meeting Wednesday night about the state Department of Transportation’s newly revived proposal to extend Daniel K. Inouye Highway westward produced a number of questions but few concrete answers.

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A community meeting Wednesday night about the state Department of Transportation’s newly revived proposal to extend Daniel K. Inouye Highway westward produced a number of questions but few concrete answers.

“We’re still early in the project,” DOT Highways Division Engineering Program Manager Ken Tatsuguchi told the 60 or so in attendance at the Waikoloa Elementary and Middle School Cafeteria.

The DKI Highway (Route 200), also known as Saddle Road — including the Puainako Street Extension in East Hawaii — stretches 52 miles between Hilo and the Mamalahoa Highway (Route 190) in South Kohala. The final piece of the DKI Highway would be about 10.5 miles, ending at Queen Kaahumanu Highway (Route 19).

A draft environmental impact statement for the project was published in 2017, but the extension was shelved in 2018 after funding dried up, prior to completion of a final EIS.

Tatsuguchi said arguments for the project’s resumption include “reducing commercial traffic in Waimea and … on Mamalahoa Highway.”

“These plans will be updated because time has passed and … some of the conditions have changed,” he noted.

Some questioned whether the rejection by the Board of Land and Natural Resources last year of an Army EIS for a lease renewal due in 2029 for almost 23,000 acres of state-owned land at Pohakuloa Training Center had anything to do with the new push for the Saddle Road extension.

“What is the viability of this project if the lease is not renewed at Pohakuloa?” asked South Kohala Traffic Safety Advisory Committee Chairman Gunner Mench.

“Looking at the east-west connection and the benefits of taking the commercial trucks out of Waimea, there still is a need for additional funding to be attached to the project that the Army can’t provide to us,” Tatsuguchi replied. “Funding is always a huge issue with all of our projects, especially large projects like this.”

Lt. Col Tim Alvarado, who’ll leave soon after three years as commanding officer as PTA, was in attendance with Lt. Col. Paul Park, who’ll succeed Alvarado at the live-fire training facility in the Big Island’s Saddle area that the Army considers of vital strategic importance.

“I think it’s to be determined. We’ve got a lot of time between now and that point in time,” Alvarado said. “But as we continue to have these conversations and negotiations with everybody … we’re going to have to wait and see.”

DOT spokeswoman Shelly Kunishige told the Tribune-Herald last month that as of last year, an updated estimate for the project’s cost is $150 million.

The DKI Highway itself wouldn’t be in existence if not for federal defense funding, and DOT Director Ed Sniffen is reportedly in discussion with the Army about renewed funding once a final EIS is published, perhaps as early as summer 2028.

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A second draft EIS — which would add updated information piggybacked on the 2017 findings — has started due to $3 million in state funding procured in part by state Sen. Tim Richards and Rep. David Tarnas, Democrats who represent the district. It could be completed as early as fall 2027.

Both legislators were present Wednesday and interacted with attendees, but neither actively participated in the meeting.

A Waikoloa woman named Chris asserted the extension is needed to relieve traffic on Waikoloa Road. That traffic includes rubbish trucks going from the closed Hilo landfill to West Hawaii, plus freight and refrigerated food trucks traveling from Kawaihae Harbor and military convoys between Kawaihae and PTA.

“It’s very dangerous … and they spent a bunch of money to repave this road a few years ago,” Chris said.

Three potential routes for the extension, which have been on the table since the 2017 draft EIS, were presented. Two of the routes would merge with Waikoloa Road at some point toward the western end.

Tatsuguchi said the mergers with the already existent road were for economic reasons, but added that the shared road would be widened and fortified to accommodate heavier trucks and increased traffic.

Another question left unanswered is what kind of interchanges would be constructed at any newly created intersections, and whether they’ll be traffic signal lights or roundabouts, which have become increasingly prevalent in the past few years. When it was suggested that an interchange where the DKI Highway extension meets Waikoloa Road could be a roundabout, there were scattered snickers from attendees.

Bo Kahui, executive director of the Kona nonprofit La‘i ‘Opua 2020 and Saddle Road Task Force member, said that he has dreamed “about this phase being completed.”

“The project itself is intended to keep us safe. That’s the key,” Kahui said. “We can take away that we would be doing the right thing for our community. And I think that’s the intention, to make a safe road for us, our community, and connect our families.”

Ron Terry, a Hilo environmental impact consultant long associated with the project, facilitated the meeting.

“We’re sort of starting anew,” Terry told attendees. “You know, we got pretty far along from 2010 to 2017. But it’s been nine years since then. Conditions have changed on the Big Island. So, the project we got to at that point, is it still right? Is it still the right thing to do? Should we build this road or not? … And sometimes, when you come to a meeting like that, you think, ‘Oh, it’s a done deal. They’re going to do that no matter what we say.’

“Believe me, that’s not the case at this point. And we can also make a number of changes in the project based on what our studies find and what people … tell us during this period.”

Updates will be available on the project website at danielkinouyehwyextension.com.

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Email John Burnett at [email protected].