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Stene: Where’s the info?

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By Aaron Stene | Special to Hawaii 24/7

The Central Federal Lands Highway Division has partnered with the state Department of Transportation to do improvements to 11 bridges statewide.

This includes three upcoming Daniel K. Inouye Highway phases (SR200(3), Daniel K. Inouye Highway Extension and west side Daniel K. Inouye Highway runaway escape ramps).

This CFLHD/HDOT partnership has already resulted in much-needed improvements to 40.27 out of 45.97 miles to the Daniel K. Inouye Highway.

This is something everyone involved can be proud of. However, the HDOT and CFLHD need to do a better job engaging the public.

These agencies have done a poor job thus far.

I had to get updates through the project engineer between 2004-2011 because the CFLHD’s Daniel K. Inouye Highway project website was never updated.

Dave Gedeon, project engineer up until late 2011, then passed me off to Mike Will. He and Mark Lloyd provided updates up until mid-2013.

Then he stated I had to go through the state Department of Transportation public affairs office for any additional updates.

I had to go through other sources since then, as it’s nearly impossible to get any response from the HDOT public affairs office.

I recently escalated my complaints to Anthony Foxx, the Secretary of Transportation, and Gregory Nadeau, the acting FHWA administrator.

Nadeau reiterated I should go through the HDOT public affairs office and told me the CFLHD’s Daniel K. Inouye Highway website would be updated on a regular basis.

I highly doubt the CFLHD or HDOT will follow through on Nadeau’s promises, which is why I am writing this commentary.

The CFLHD and HDOT need to do a better job engaging the public’s participation in these projects.

Aaron Stene
Kailua-Kona

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