Report Title:

Overseas Bridge or Undersea Tunnel; Iroquois Pt to Hickam AFB

RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, by the year 2020, the region designated by the City and County of Honolulu as the Ewa Development Plan Area will have experienced tremendous growth, and will have made significant progress toward providing a Secondary Urban Center for the island of Oahu; and

WHEREAS, the population of the Ewa Development Plan Area will have grown from 43,000 people in 1990 to almost 125,000. Nearly 28,000 new housing units will have been built in a series of master planned communities. Job growth will be equally impressive, rising from 17,000 jobs to over 64,000 in 2020; and

WHEREAS, over the next twenty years, Oahu residents and visitors will be attracted increasingly to Ewa by a new university campus, the Ko Olina resort, ocean and waterfront activities at Ewa Marina, a major super regional park, and a thriving City of Kapolei; and

WHEREAS, despite plans to add a six-lane highway route linking the H-1 Freeway with Kapolei, in order to relieve heavy traffic on Fort Weaver Road and Fort Barrette Road, there still remains only one major roadway from the Ewa Development Plan Area to downtown Honolulu -- the H-1 Freeway; and

WHEREAS, in order to manage the increasing amount of traffic on the H-1 Freeway as it heads toward Honolulu, which is caused by the merging of the H-1 and H-2 Freeways and the many on-ramps that collect and direct local traffic onto the H-1, the State must reduce the number of vehicles that initially enter the H-1 Freeway at Kalaeloa, Kapolei, Ewa, and Ewa Beach; and

WHEREAS, two possible ways of reducing the number of vehicles that initially enter the H-1 Freeway at Kalaeloa, Kapolei, Ewa, and Ewa Beach are to:

and

WHEREAS, connecting Iroquois Point to Hickam Air Force Base at the entrance of Pearl Harbor would allow Honolulu-bound vehicles to bypass the H-1/H-2 Freeway merger and the many on-ramps that collect and direct local traffic onto the H-1; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Transportation is requested to examine the feasibility of using state highway revenue bonds to finance the planning, design, and construction of either an overseas bridge or an undersea tunnel, including appurtenant aboveground roadways, from Iroquois Point to Hickam Air Force Base, in order to link Kalaeloa, Kapolei, Ewa, and Ewa Beach to Honolulu; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to consult with the United States Navy and the United States Coast Guard to ensure that access to Pearl Harbor and Honolulu Harbor, respectively, are not unduly obstructed by the overseas bridge or undersea tunnel; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to consult with the United States Navy and the United States Air Force to ensure that the overseas bridge or undersea tunnel does not compromise the security of these installations or their operations; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to submit its findings and recommendations to the Legislature not less than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2002; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, the Director of Transportation, the Mayor and the Chairperson of the Council of the City and County of Honolulu, the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of the Air Force, and the Secretary of Transportation.