I asked my HDOT engineering contact why can’t the speed limit above the Hualalai Vistas subdivision be reduced instead of constructing a channelized intersection. He e-mailed me this reply:
“DOT did not reduce the speed limit from 45 MPH to 35 MPH because it is not a good general practice to reduce the highway’s speed limit to meet a development’s needs. Instead, we expect the development to bear the responsibility of mitigating its impacts on the highway (and the general commuting public) by installing such things as left-turn lanes.”
The HDOT may be forced to reduce the speed limit though. The developer’s geotechnical expert has to assess the stability of the nearby rock facing before construction can resume. So, there isn’t any guarantee this channelized intersection will ever be completed.
I recently switched from HDMI back to component cabling between my HDTV and the Scientific Atlanta 4250HDC set top box. The HD television signal would disconnect (and take longer to load) though HDMI instead of component cabling. However, the picture was much more crisper via HDMI though.
Stephens Media‘s battle against bloggers recently hit a major roadblock. A federal judge ruled Righthaven LLC didn’t have legal standing to sue on behalf of Stephens Media. This is a significant decision. It’ll likely force Stephens Media to defend their copyrights instead of hiring outside mercenaries to do the job.
Lastly, Hawaiian Telcom’s executive team got paid like kings over the past two years while staff reductions and service cutbacks continue. The excessive executive compensation isn’t fair to the front line employees or Hawaiian Telcom’s long term financial health.
June 21st, 2011 at 10:04 AM
HDMI is definitely the way you want to go, if possible, Aaron. I assume you swapped another cable in? Sometimes they can be cantankerous. You might want to have the cable guys check signal strength. You should not get dropped signal through HDMI, and, after all, your paying for full HD, you might as well get it tuned to the best possible.
June 21st, 2011 at 9:18 PM
The connection between the HDTV and the cable box is fine if I use component cabling . The annoying channel signal lost message goes away when I use the latter cabling. However, the HDMI cable works fine between my Blu-Ray player and the TV (My HDTV has only one HDMI slot).
June 21st, 2011 at 6:17 PM
I was thinking about that HDOT “oh, it’s got to be 45 on the upper road there” while slowing to 35MPH on Queen K near Old Industrial.
June 21st, 2011 at 6:27 PM
The HDOT believes developers should mitigate the impacts from their developments and not apply band-aids such as reducing the speed limit. However, the HDOT may have to do the latter if the geotechnical expert declares the rock facing as unsafe. The engineer I spoke to even acknowledged this possibility.
June 22nd, 2011 at 9:17 PM
Re: Hualalai Vistas channelized intersection: I think there’s other options. e.g., (1) narrow the shoulder widths on mauka and makai sides within the “taper” of the widened intersection zone. Protect pedestrian/bicyclists with a guardrail closer to the striped vehicular lanes with pedestrian/bike paths on the outsides of the repositioned guardrails. At either end of the widened intersection zone, or “taper”, the guardrails widen back out to the existing shoulder, with a passage for bike/peds. Bridges have less than this and are DOT-posted at 45 or higher. (2) shift one-half, possibly one full lane width makai by having the developer widen the right of way on the subdivision site. It’s a little irregular, but the taper can run longer on the makai side.
This is a very expensive solution, but it’s one choice. (3) keep the existing lane design, but to allow required rebuilding of the destroyed roadway width for the row of houselots above (which is why the project stopped), construct a vertical concrete wall secured by concrete piles or sunken columns. Going “plumb” vertical rather than an inclined mortared rock face will deliver the lane width restoration. This is expensive also, but not as expensive as shifting the highway makai in this area. Seems to me, from the little reported so far, the designing engineer who didn’t get the critical site topo and actual use data should be paying for this unconscionable oversight by picking up the tab for these solutions. The point is that a speed limit reduction should not be imposed on the public when design solutions do exist.
(4) Something else to consider: because the south (Kailua side) end of the widened intersection zone is only a couple hundred feet from the Kaloko Drive intersection which is screaming to be channelized, and for which the County has hundreds of thousands of dollars in a special fund just for that one intersection project, maybe the face-saving and most practical solution as well is expand the problematic design to stretch further to allow Kaloko Dr. and Hualalai Vistas to be both channelized at the same time. The hidden beneficiaries could be the Kona Ponoi subdivision folks, using Lihau Street, just North of Kaloko Drive, getting a “refuge lane” to turn in and out from, in between the two principal intersections on either side of it. This “bigger picture” solution would make widening more on the makai side a more cost-effective choice as well.