STAND. COM. REP. NO. 991

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1378

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Transportation and Energy, to which was referred H.B. No. 1378, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HIGHWAYS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for the Department of Transportation to develop plans for the construction of secondary access roads for the Waianae District of Leeward Oahu.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Honorable Tulsi Gabbard, United States Representative of the 2nd District of Hawaii; Department of Transportation; Ho‘omana Pono, LLC; and numerous individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from three individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from two individuals.

     Your Committee finds that Farrington Highway is the sole access route that links the Waianae District to Ewa and additional places of interest on the eastern side of Oahu, including metropolitan Honolulu.  Although West Oahu has experienced exponential growth and development over the last twenty years, transportation infrastructure has not kept pace.  Traffic volume on Farrington Highway has increased from an average of twenty thousand vehicles per day in 2000, to fifty thousand vehicles per day in 2016.

     Your Committee further finds that residents of the Waianae District bear the largest burden of the current infrastructural insufficiency since they must contend with daily commutes of up to two hours each way for jobs or school.  Additionally, the lack of any alternate route leaves Leeward residents more vulnerable to harm in an emergency situation.  There is currently no available route that can be used as an alternative to Farrington Highway during times when Farrington Highway is impassable.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation and Energy that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1378, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1378, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation and Energy,

________________________________

LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair