{"id":590,"date":"2026-06-15T10:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T10:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=590"},"modified":"2026-06-15T10:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T10:39:19","slug":"waikoloa-village-residents-ramp-up-demand-for-a-new-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=590","title":{"rendered":"Waikoloa Village residents ramp up demand for a new road"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Wildfires in recent years on Hawaii Island and Maui have driven Waikoloa Village residents to seek proactive solutions to the looming danger of traffic bottlenecks in the event of a full-scale evacuation.<\/p>\n

Read more Kona Canoe Club hosting World Cup watch parties; new menu items, prizes available<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Wildfires in recent years on Hawaii Island and Maui have driven Waikoloa Village residents to seek proactive solutions to the looming danger of traffic bottlenecks in the event of a full-scale evacuation.<\/p>\n

The village is home to roughly 7,000 full-time residents with only one way in and out: Waikoloa Road.<\/p>\n

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This isolated access has earned it the nickname \u201cworld\u2019s largest cul-de-sac,\u201d with plans to add more than 1,000 new housing units in the next five years in affordable and luxury residential developments being erected along the community\u2019s northern flank.<\/p>\n

Concerned residents have become increasingly vocal about the need to build out evacuation infrastructure in tandem with this new housing. Their concerns have grown to the point of demanding that Hawaii County officials include funds in annual capital improvement project budgets to design what advocates are calling the \u201cWaikoloa Second Road.\u201d<\/p>\n

They want the proposed two-lane paved \u201carterial\u201d to run from the north end of the village roughly three miles west and intersect with Queen Ka\u2018ahumanu Highway \u2014 also known as Highway 19 \u2014 near its juncture with Puako Beach Road.<\/p>\n

These concerns and demands are not unwarranted. In 2021, firefighters fought a touch-and-go battle against the Mana Road Fire for five days from July 30 to Aug. 3. At its peak, roughly 140 fire personnel were on the ground fighting aggressive, runaway flame fronts burning along the northern and eastern slopes of Maunakea.<\/p>\n

It took a massive multi-agency response including local, state, federal, military and private efforts \u2014 including the use of Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters \u2014 before the conflagration was contained, but not before it scorched 40,000 acres.<\/p>\n

A mandatory evacuation order for Waikoloa Village was issued on Aug. 1 around noon by Hawaii County Civil Defense after the rapidly moving fire jumped across Highway 190 and advanced closer to the community.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the order going out, thousands of residents attempting to flee via Waikoloa Road were stuck in traffic for hours while smoke billowed overhead. Some relief came in the county\u2019s opening of the steep, winding one-lane emergency evacuation route connecting Hulu Street to Highway 19, which is gated off year-round. Since then, the county has held annual \u2014 and later twice-a-year \u2014voluntary evacuation drills using the route known as the \u201cHulu Holoholo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost exactly two years after the Mana Road Fire came the deadly Lahaina Fire on Maui \u2014 a charging, wind-driven blaze that consumed the town on Aug. 8, 2023, and killed at least 102 people, more than a dozen of whom burned to death inside their vehicles while trying to escape.<\/p>\n

A $380 million fiscal year 2026-2027 CIP budget was passed unanimously by the County Council on June 4, along with its corresponding nearly $1 billion operating budget. The budget includes an $11 million appropriation for the construction of infrastructure like streets and water and sewer lines to serve the 850-unit Kamakoa Nui affordable housing project in the village \u2014 slated for completion in 2030 \u2014 but no money for the second road.<\/p>\n

This omission has irked groups like Wildfire Safety Advocates, a Waikoloa Village-based community nonprofit working on wildfire readiness and safety policies that submitted written opposition testimony to the budget hearing. The organization\u2019s Executive Director Matt Chalker described the issue as a matter of \u201cpriorities,\u201d saying that adding to the population of the village without concrete plans to build out emergency infrastructure is irresponsible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are insisting on is that they stagger this \u2014 that they first do the road and then they put the people in,\u201d Chalker told the Tribune-Herald. \u201cThe way that we structured our comment and our request is that they can spend the $11 million if they also spend the $2.5 million in conjunction at the same time to do the design for the road, and then they are not going to issue occupancy permits for any houses until the road is complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to take them a few years to build the houses,\u201d he added, \u201c(and) we\u2019re giving them the same amount of time to build the road. Just doing it parallel \u2014 that\u2019s really all it comes down to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The $2.5 million he mentioned is a CIP budget allocation approved by the council last year to kickstart planning for the second road by funding a design and engineering study. Yet the money up to this point remains undispersed.<\/p>\n

Chalker\u2019s sentiment is shared by Kohala Councilman James Hustace, who said at a community meeting at the Waikoloa Village Golf Course in January that making preparations for the long-term growth of the village is critical.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was important to me hearing from the community that we have public financing behind roads,\u201d Hustace said. \u201cIf we are growing a community with county housing \u2026 we also have a responsibility to be at the table to provide that infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chalker takes issue with constructing homes in a place he described as \u201cdangerous,\u201d saying that the people occupying the newly built units will hardly be better off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe families that are moving into those are low-income families, presumably with several children,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat that is is a curse to those families because it\u2019s gonna put them in the most dangerous places. It\u2019s not a blessing \u2014 it\u2019s not something that they\u2019re gonna be able to build a life on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chalker lived in Waikoloa Village during the Mana Road Fire in 2021 and witnessed firsthand the chaos and delays.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the (2021) evacuation, when the existing (Hulu Street) emergency route in addition to Waikoloa Road were open, residents waited for more than an hour just to get to Waikoloa Road, waiting an hour on Paniolo Avenue,\u201d he said. \u201cI estimate that there were probably 300 to 400 cars in line right there at that one point in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that the Hulu Street route is helpful but not enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s useful, and it is something we care about, but it\u2019s not sufficient,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we really, really need more than anything else is a two-lane road open to traffic, dedicated 24\/7 \u2026 out of the north end of the village.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the 2021 blaze had been more like the Lahaina Fire, he said that the outcome would have looked much different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not kidding when I\u2019m saying if (Waikoloa) burns down like Lahaina did, more than a thousand people will die \u2014 no doubt about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe experienced a close call in 2021, and then we saw what happened on Maui, and we saw people actually dying in their cars in a fire and a traffic jam,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I just was like, wait a second, we need to do something different here. We need to change this conversation, and we need to force the government to do something for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Kimo Alameda has declined to pick up the council-approved funds for the road study, instead relying on $4.5 million in state funding to move forward on a second one-way emergency route plan in partnership with the housing project developers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt no time did we promise that the county would build this (second two-way) road,\u201d Alameda said. \u201cThis is a private road \u2014 negotiations have been between the private developer and the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing the CIP budget as a \u201cwish list,\u201d he said that money for the second road study was never set in stone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe capital improvement projects list is a planning document \u2026 not a guaranteed funding schedule,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the dilemma has been further complicated by stakeholders acting in bad faith \u2014 something he\u2019s trying to rectify.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon review of this matter, we have uncovered misrepresentations and historical confusion on both sides,\u201d he said. \u201cOur administration is working to resolve those issues and to clear the record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more USMNT relentless vs. Paraguay to win World Cup opener<\/a><\/p>\n

Email Stefan Verbano at stefan.verbano@hawaiitribune-herald.com.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waikoloa Village residents ramp up demand for a new road – Hawaii News | Hawaii Tribune-Herald<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWaikoloa Village residents ramp up demand for a new road - Moving to Hawaii Guide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=590\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Waikoloa Village residents ramp up demand for a new road - Moving to Hawaii Guide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Waikoloa Village residents ramp up demand for a new road - 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