STAND. COM. REP. NO. 209-00

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 2000

                                 RE: H.B. No. 2721
                                     H.D. 1




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred H.B.
No. 2721 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRANSPORTATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill, as received by your Committee,is
to set standards to ensure that highway and bridge designers
consider aesthetic, historic, and scenic values, along with
safety and mobility in constructing, reconstructing, restoring,
and maintaining present facilities.

     Your Committee finds that aesthetic, scenic, historic,
cultural and natural resources of an area are important factors
that create a sense of place and provide communities with
differing identities.  Your Community further finds that
communities risk losing their identities because bridge and
highway designers follow specified standards, not recognizing
that standards should allow some flexibility.

     This bill proposes that the Director of Transportation shall
establish new design standards, on or before January 1,2002, to
govern new construction, reconstruction, resurfacing,
restoration, or rehabilitation of bridges, principal and minor
arterial roads, collector and local roads, and streets. The bill
further proposes that the standards shall take safety,
durability, and economy of maintenance; the constructed and
natural environment of the area; the potential effects on the
state and local economies; the community development plans as

 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 209-00
                                 Page 2

 
reflected in county ordinances; the environmental, scenic,
aesthetic, historic, community, and preservation impacts of the
activity; and access to other mode of transportation into
account.

     Testimonies in support of this measure were received from
the Department of Transportation, the Historic Hawai'i
Foundation, Na Leo Pohai, Alliance for the Heritage of East Maui,
Palama la Kona Heritage Preservation Council, North Hilo
Community Association, Hawaii's Thousand Friends, Hanalei Roads
Committee, Hawaii Heritage Roads Alliance, Life of the Land, and
an interested citizen.

     Your Committee has amended this bill by changing standards
to guidelines, on page 4, line 6, to reflect the need for
flexibility in designing bridges and highways; and amended the
completion date for establishing guideliens from January 1, 2002,
to June 30, 2003, to allow for completion of an ongoing manual.
Your Committee further amended the proposed bill by adding an
additional proviso to be taken into account: (7) "Access to and
integration of sites deemed culturally and historically
significant to communities affected."

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No.
2721, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second
Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2721, H.D. 1, and
be referred to the Committee on Finance.

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



                                   ______________________________
                                   KENNETH T. HIRAKI, Chair