New Sidewalk Delights Folks In Waimanalo
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Del.icio.usAfter 10 months of construction - and a few years of campaigning for it - Waimanalo residents finally got their new sidewalk on the makai side of busy Hihimanu Street.
Completed in February by Integrated Construction for $1 million in federal money, the project was deemed “need-to-have” by Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who attended the April 14 blessing along with U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, state officials, Hawaii Job Corps students and staff and everyone who has been involved over the years in making it happen. The HJC culinary students provided a pupu reception for the happy crowd.
Neighbors pointed out as early at 2002 that the rural community lacked sidewalks, especially on Hihimanu between Kakaina Street and Ahiki Street at the entrance to Waimanalo District Park where so many youth sports leagues play. And at night it can be dark and dangerous.
“Today our seniors are exercising along the walkway, kids are walking home from school and to town to catch buses,” said a gleeful Julie Dugan of the HJC. She helped initiate a petition drive for the sidewalks six years ago.
HJC student body president Piilani Aea, a Waimanalo mother who spoke at the blessing, was thrilled. “My friends and I would walk our kids to the park, but the cars would come speeding by and there was nowhere to go. It’s way better now.”
The new 3,000-foot side-walk meets ADA standards and has a curb and gutters. The work also required an embankment and grade adjustment walls at the back, adjustments to manhole covers and fire hydrants, and handrails along the drainage channel portion.
The late Aaron Leong, Inouye’s aide who saw the project through, will be honored with a permanent plaque at the site for his work. He died Dec. 31.
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