Laniakea highway realignment project to begin Summer 2024
“It’s going to be a two-year build, we’re going to phase it out to minimize impacts to the public by doing as much as we can off the road before we start impacting traffic on it.”… The Laniakea Highway Safety Project will begin this summer, with a two-year project to shift the highway mauka and move the parking area makai to prevent pedestrians from wandering onto the highway. The project, originally set to begin in late 2023, has been delayed several times and will begin in a few months. The state aims to minimize public impacts by removing as much of the roadway as possible. Phase 1 includes constructing the bridge, roadway grading, and drainage maulka of the existing right of way, shifting traffic while work is being done to connect Waimea-bound lane to the new highway. Phase 2A includes widening the makaai side of the current Kamehameha Highway with temporary pavement at both ends, and phase 2B includes moving Waimella-bound traffic to the New highway. phase 2C will shift all traffic to connect all traffic. The beach will remain open during the construction.
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HALEIWA (KHON2) — The Laniakea Highway Safety Project will finally start this summer.
For decades North Shore residents have been waiting on a solution for the bottleneck at Laniakea. Originally, the project was set to begin in late 2023. Then it got delayed.
Now, the project to shift the highway mauka and move the parking area makai so pedestrians don’t dart out onto the highway and create traffic will begin in a few months.
“The safety improvement project is slated to start this year in the summer, in the July/August timeframe,” said Hawaii Dept. of Transportation Director Ed Sniffen. “It’s going to be a two-year build, we’re going to phase it out to minimize impacts to the public by doing as much as we can off the road before we start impacting traffic on it.”
Phase 1 includes constructing the bridge, roadway grading, and drainage mauka of the existing right of way.
Phase 2A includes widening the makai side of the existing Kamehameha Highway with the temporary pavement at both ends; then shifting traffic while work is being done to connect Waimea-bound lane to the new highway.
Phase 2B is moving Waimea-bound traffic to the new highway and work on the Haleiwa-bound lane to connect to the new highway.
Phase 2C will shift all traffic to the new highway
Phase 3 – Construct drainage and landscape between the existing highway and the new highway and Pohaku Loa Way. Use the existing highway as parking for public use during Phase 3.
“There’s going to be closures for the Laniakea Safety Project,” Sniffen said. “When we connect the lanes to the new highway, there’s definitely going to be closures when we start mobilizing our equipment and setting up the Best Management Practices in that area. We’re going to try and minimize the road closures throughout because most of the work is going to be off of the roadway.”
Kamehameha Highway will shift towards the current area where people park; the parking area will shift towards the ocean to prevent people from running across the highway.
Eventually, it could lead to lane closures and no parking at Laniakea at any given time.
The state said it will try to minimize impacts to the public as much as possible.
KHON2 asked a surfer who uses the parking lot now, how he would feel if the parking area was closed during the two-year timeframe.
“I mean you just have to find somewhere else to park,” said Sunset Beach resident Jimmy Kress, who said he’s been waiting on a solution to the traffic for 15 years. “Just like anything there has to be give and take but I think if they can fix the traffic it’s going to be worth it, you know?”
The beach will remain open during the construction.
State Rep. Sean Quinlan (D) Waialua, Haleiwa, Kahana, is also the house tourism committee chair; he said he will make sure messaging goes out to the visitor industry alerting them of road work and potential parking closures.
“And they can find other recreational activities while they’re here,” Rep. Quinlan said.
“I’m just so excited DOT has heard the pleas of our community to give us the bypass road, and it’s going to improve our quality of life once it’s complete,” Quinlan added.
But others still think moving the parking lot toward the ocean will lead to bigger problems.
“When the waves get big, it washes out that road so now we’re going to have a parking lot sitting on it and if it’s a parking lot people will think they can be there and there will be I’m certain incidents because of that,” North Shore Neighborhood board member Racquel Achiu-Hill said about the large winter surf that already sweeps across Kamehameha Highway between November and March.