Select an option below to continue reading this premium story.
Already a Honolulu Star-Advertiser subscriber? Log in now to continue reading.
An annual state-by-state assessment of the nation’s highways and byways has found, again, that Hawaii is near the bottom, ranked 47th as it was last year. Is anyone surprised? Likely not — on two fronts.
First, time spent driving in Oahu traffic could well confirm the Reason Foundation’s finding that Hawaii has the worst urban interstate pavement conditions in the country. According to the report, 21.8% of Hawaii’s urban interstate mileage was in poor condition between 2015 and 2016, the period tracked. On the second front: Hawaii’s low ranking is not so surprising, given Oahu’s highly used freeway system, with its layout clustered to serve intensely concentrated population areas. Our state has the smallest state-owned road system at 1,012 miles, but those roads surely take a beating, being as heavily traveled as they are every day.
What would certainly help improve Hawaii’s poor pavement conditions would be investment in infrastructure: Hawaii ranks a dismal 41st in spending per mile.
“States do not need to engage in a spending bonanza to improve their systems,” said the report. “But there is some evidence that a small increase in spending could yield a significantly better system.”
Now would be the ideal time to ask: Whatever happened to the hefty investment in U.S. infrastructure improvements, repeatedly promised by the Trump administration?
And, to ask of Gov. David Ige and the state Transportation Department: What’s the stepped-up strategy to improve our highways?
