Senator Brian Schatz and State Hwys Division Ed Sniffen at County IT Committee

UPDATE  1/28/22  Maui News article published this morning:

https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2022/01/county-to-see-66-5m-under-federal-infrastructure-bill/

 

1/27/22  #kihei   

Did you catch this  at 9:00 am 1/27/22?

We almost missed this one although we do carefully monitor all upcoming council meetings and their committee meetings. Further, the meeting also featured a presentation by State Director of the Highways Division Ed Sniffen, both addressing transportation infrastructure in Maui County.  As we were one of only three testifiers, we expect many other were unaware.

Because of logistics Senator Schatz presented even before public testimony was accepted. The topic was INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT AND JOBS ACT and he explained the ways this could help our County’s transportation infrastructure, and he opened with music to our ears, that this was for multimodal, not just cars! He repeatedly mentioned bicycling and pedestrian inclusion. He also advised that the $$ from the federal government would go to projects that were ready to go. We have heard this refrain numerous time before, often using the term ”shovel ready.” So our county government needs to have projects like segments of the N/S Collector Road ready to build.

The Senator took limited questions from the committee members before departing. Then it was open for public testimony before Ed Sniffen offered a comprehensive slide presentation on the same topic. As it is of  major concern, we will lead by reporting Ed did state clearly that the Piilani Hwy roundabout is proceeding and will be pau by THIS August. We continue to agree with this decision, as we have advocated for roundabouts for well over a decade.

Here are several of the slides presented:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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