2024-11-06 SK GP Testimony to LPC (Signed)

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Communication No. 2019-10 Waikoloa Subcommittee's Waikolon Road-Paniolo Avenue Intersection Report Waikoloa Road built by 2010, which has not happened as of 2019. Nevertheless, the report recommended adding a traffic signal to the intersection based on the 2005 analysis and 2010 projections, primarily to address "Level of Service" issues with left turns from Paniolo Avenue onto Waikoloa Road. (WHTIA, p. 25) Traffic on Paniolo Avenue and Waikoloa Road were counted in separate activities in 2016 and 2018, although the data was collected in different Iocations and not incorporated into a formal traffic analysis report. Traffic at the intersection has also been estimated currently at 16,600 vehicles per day by the Waikoloa Plaza development team, Meridian Pacific (per leasing brochure, 2018). 4.4. Near-term Pedestrian Usage Increases Pedestrian and bicycle usage is very likely to increase in the future, within the next two years, due to the construction of a Large shopping center on the south side of Waikoloa Road. This will drive pedestrian and bicycle traffic from Waikoloa Village (on the north side of Waikoloa Road) across the intersection to and from the shopping center. There is also an affordable housing development planned on Pua Melia Street that will have around 60 units which will also increase pedestrian traffic at the Waikoloa-Paniolo intersection, as people from that development walk across the intersection to the existing shopping center on the northwest corner of Waikoloa Road and Paniolo Road, and possibly children walking or cycling to school at Waikoloa Elementary & Middle School. 4.5. Near-term Traffic Increases Waikoloa Road is currently used as the main thoroughfare between the Mamalahoa Highway and the Queek Ka'ahumanu Highway. This results in many trucks traveling through the Waikoloa- Paniolo intersection. Military convoys also use this route and occasionally slow down traffic, but this is not typically a daily occurrence. Industrial use and construction projects along Waikoloa Road, such as the West Hawaii Concrete quarry, the BioEnergy Hawaii plant, West Hawaii Concrete's planned asphalt plant, AES Distributed Energy's planned solar power plant, the planned trucking of waste from East Hawaii to the West Hawaii Sanitary Landfill in Puuanahulu, and others, add (or will soon add) to the daily heavy vehicle traffic. 4.6. Intersection Recommendation After reviewing the available data, it seems to the members of the subcommittee preparing this report that the Waikoloa-Paniolo intersection needs to have traffic controls added, such as a traffic signal or a roundabout. However, it is difficult to draw a firm conclusion without having professionals review current traffic data for the intersection. Fortunately, intersection traffic control is an extrememly well -studied area with established standards and procedures for determining how to address intersection traffic and safety. This would typically consist of a traffic study (or traffic count) performed by the Hawaii County Traffic Division for the Waikoloa-Paniolo intersection. June 18, 2019 Page 12 of 17