Emergency evacuation route planned for Waikoloa Village
By Jeremy Lee
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HAWAII COUNTY, Hawaii (KITV) — Waikoloa village will be getting a dedicated emergency evacuation road.
Private landowners have pledged to fund and grant the County of Hawaii the new route or egress down to the highway.
For two decades, residents in Waikoloa Village have been clamoring for an emergency evacuation route. If everything goes as planned, as announced by county and state officials and private interest groups, a road leading down from Kamakoa Nui skate park could be the beginning of that route.
A road near the skate park, and new development underway, would lead out of Waikoloa Village and down to the state highway. Hawaii county and the state hosted the groundbreaking ceremony off of Queen Kaahumanu Highway.
“Landowners from several different properties got together and decided that they would hui to purchase and build out the roadway within the community if we could connect up to the State Highway. So the Mayor brought us in kind of during the discussions and negotiations to ask would the State be willing to allow the connection here and would the State be willing to design it for and design and construct it. And it was the easy yes,” said Ed Sniffen with the Hawaii Department of Transportation.
“It’s going to be two lanes in one direction, which is important,” said Mayor Mitch Roth, “we learned with Hulu Street that it was only one lane, it wasn’t paved at that time, and it was very difficult for the community to get out of.”
Governor Green said of the Nana Kai landowner, “there’s been decades of this, so we have to have egress roads in all communities that have extra risk, so we’re so grateful to Mr. Summers and his team. They’re going to come and put a lot of resources here.”
The private entities hope to construct the emergency access road by the end of the year as part of phase one.
“Phase one is the landowners have decided to put this road in. It will be an emergency evacuation route. Phase two will come with a more permanent road that hopefully will be dedicated over to the county,” said Mayor Roth.
There are some major steps ahead. The land must be surveyed for cultural artifacts but also unexploded ordinances.
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