Neither the state nor federal government will provide funding for a two-lane road.In the early 1980s, a few of us recognized that the Kihei-Wailea-Makena area was going to experience dramatic growth. Bill Maschal, president of the Kihei Community Association (KCA), pushed for the construction of Pi‘ilani Highway and to make the right-of-way and the road as wide as possible. It was through his foresight that we were ultimately able to make the Pi‘ilani four lanes.
We also saw the need for a long, continuous road paralleling South Kihei Road and the Pi‘ilani running between the two. Finally, in 1989, the Kihei Traffic Master Plan was created. This was a detailed, magnificent plan that showed the route for the North-South Collector Road as well as proposed new connector roads. It also dealt with improved intersections on Pi‘ilani and called for a few underpasses to facilitate traffic flow.
I was an avid supporter of the plan, even before it was finalized. As a member of the KCA board and chair of the Traffic and Safety Committee, I lobbied endlessly for the adoption of this plan before the County Council and the Mayor. For the next 12 years, I spoke hundreds of times to try to get the council and Planning Department to just draw the line on the map. Unfortunately, neither the council nor Planning Department would adopt the 1989 Traffic Master Plan or draw the lines on the map.
Ultimately, Road C was built (now Pi‘ikea) and four long blocks of the N-S Collector Road (now Liloa) were built. The portion of Liloa from Pi‘ikea past Lokelani Intermediate is built to the full four-lane width.
There was a strong anti-growth sentiment on the KCA board and the philosophy changed to holding down growth by limiting infrastructure. As a result, there has been no construction of the road. Neither the state nor federal government will provide any funding for a two-lane road. Normally they provide 80 percent of the cost of design and construction. So the county must pay five times as much without state and federal assistance. Obviously, the county isn’t going to do that when they can get five times as much road elsewhere for the same amount of money.
Understanding the financial realities, it is unlikely the N-S Collector Road will be built. It will take an incredibly significant event to change the position of the KCA. Until then, there will be no N-S Collector Road.