Federal Funding to Aid South Shore Roads

U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced that Kaua‘i and Maui will be receiving nearly $50 million in combined grant funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The funding was awarded through the highly competitive Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability & Equity (RAISE) Grant program. As chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Transportation and Housing, Schatz worked closely with the offices of Kaua‘i Mayor Derek Kawakami and Maui Mayor Mike Victorino on their applications and urged DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg to approve them.

“This is a huge win for Kaua‘i and Maui and our most successful year for big dollar, competitive infrastructure grants,” said Schatz, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, in a press release Monday, Aug. 8. “It is rare for any state to get this level of grant funding in a single year, and it will be put to good use by improving roads, bike lanes, sidewalks, and bus stops, connecting communities and making it safer and easier for people to travel.”

Maui will receive $25 million to help construct the Wai‘ale Road Extension, which extends Wai‘ale Road from its current terminus at East Waiko Road southward to Honoapi‘ilani Highway. The approximately 8,600 foot extension will include multimodal improvements; it will have two travel lanes, bike lanes, sidewalks, grass swales, and a shared-use path on one side of the roadway. The project will support additional housing in the area.

Kaua‘i is set to receive $24.8 million in RAISE grant funding to construct approximately 3.3 miles of roadway improvements on Poʻipū Road, from Kōloa Town to Poʻipū. The project includes roundabouts, bicycle lanes, sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, bus stops, landscaped medians, resurfaced roadway, and drainage improvements.