Highway 130 is the only route out of the fast-growing community, and is jammed with traffic each day. One critic called the council vote 'a slap in the face' for Puna residents.
The bill would have accepted and added into the County’s budget $1 million from the state, which Puna state Rep. Greggor Ilagan was able to get allocated as a line item in the state budget in 2021, and another $500,000 from County coffers for the Hawai‘i County Department of Public Works to do the study.
Data collected throughout a 6-month period which wrapped up at the end of December shows Waiuli, also known as Richardson Ocean Park, has an estimated monthly visitation of nearly 24,000 people while more than 10,000 are gauged to use Lehia, or King’s Landing.
The former Bay Clinic CEO and chief of the Hawai‘i Island Fentanyl Task Force made his announcement in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the main pavilion at Wailoa River State Recreation Area on Saturday night in Hilo.
There is no infrastructure work planned at this time. Bill 107 only would put funds into the County budget for the study, which would be conducted to find an alternate route in and out of Puna to Hilo below Highway 130.