26 Apr 2010

March Meeting Summary

The Hawaii ITE had its monthly luncheon meeting on March 24, 2010, at the City’s Frank F. Fasi Municipal Building. It was announced that the time for electing new officers is coming up, and we are looking for new officers and those that would like to get more involved.

Brian Suzuki, Planning Division Chief for the City & County of Honolulu Department of Transportation Services, spoke about projects his division is currently working on. He gave a great PowerPoint presentation on the Diamond Head Road Scenic Byways Nomination, and also spoke about the Makakilo Drive extension and Ewa impact fees for traffic and roadway improvements.

The National Scenic Byways Program, established in 1991, is part of the Federal Highway Administration, recognizing roads based on their scenic qualities including archeological, cultural, historic, natural, and recreational aspects. Hawaii has so much scenic beauty to offer, but the path around Diamond Head in particular has a great variety of all the qualities that would qualify it to be named a National Scenic Byway, and perhaps even an All-American Road. The path, which includes Kapahulu Avenue around Kapiolani Park, Diamond Head Road, and Monsarrat Avenue; contains so much history. There are historic ironwood trees, surf lookouts, a path to a lighthouse, markers for Robert Louis Stevenson, Amelia Earhart, Gandhi, the Diamond Head state park, and King Kalakaua carriage way among many other sights to see. The Waikiki Aquarium, originally a transit destination, is now the 3rd oldest aquarium in the US. The Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial, where two Olympic swimmers swam, and the Honolulu Tudor-French cottages are on the National Register of Historic places. Also along the byway is a community garden and C.W. Dickey, father of Hawaiian architecture, homes. The City is the local sponsor, and will submit the nomination to the State DOT for approval. Once it is designated locally, it can be submitted for nation recognition. Hawaii is one of the last states to have such a designation. There are improvements to be made along Diamond Head Road, and with the designation, up to 80% of can be federally funded.

24 Feb 2010

January Meeting Summary

The Hawaii ITE had its monthly luncheon meeting on January 28, 2010 at the City’s Frank F. Fasi Municipal Building.

Chris Sayers, Bicycle Coordinator for the City & County of Honolulu, accompanied by planning consultant Tom Fee, of Helber Hastert & Fee, presented the 2010 O‘ahu Bike Plan.
The O‘ahu Bike Plan is a stronger, more comprehensive update of the Honolulu Bike Plan, covering the entire island of O‘ahu. The vision is to have O‘ahu be “a bicycle-friend community where bicycling is a safe, viable, and popular travel choice for residents and visitors of all ages.” Public workshops were held, and it was found that the public was most concerned about improving safety, including improving pavement conditions and connecting existing segments and improving access to popular destinations. Each region of the island was studied, meetings and interviews were held to learn about specific concerns and opportunities, focus areas were identified to increase accessibility, and national best practices and approaches in implementing successful plans were researched. The planning team is now finalizing the plan that will provide recommendations to better integrate bicycles into the City & County of Honolulu’s existing and future transportation system. The goal of the plan is to achieve being recognized as a Bicycle-Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists.
Members asked questions and shared their experiences of bicycling. Innovated treatments like bike boxes and shared lane markings or “sharrows” were discussed along with policies and programs such as individualized outreach, bike parking, way finding signage, and bike share programs. More information can be found at www.oahubikeplan.org.

24 Feb 2010

November Meeting Summary

The Hawaii ITE had its monthly luncheon meeting on November 17, 2009 at the City’s Frank Fasi Municipal Building.

The speaker was Dr. Dan Boylan, a history professor at the University of Hawaii at West Oahu, Columnist of Mostly Politics in Mid Week, and Host of Island Insight on PBS. He sat amongst ITE members, imparting his knowledge and views of journalism and politics through his stories.
According to Dr. Boylan, as engineers we have facts and numbers on our side. However, when dealing with the opposition it can be difficult to go up against an ideology that doesn’t believe the facts or tries to skew them. He had the following advice for engineers:
• Tell a story to engage your audience.
• Speak positively of the future and highlight benefits of success.
• Have people see a project for more than its cost.
• Be consistent in what you say.
• Most importantly, keep your cool.
Members asked questions of Dr. Boylan, such as who he feels is a good communicator, how does one know that they are being fair and balanced, and what kind of reactions does he get from his writing? He entertained all our questions and summarized it all by saying that in Hawaii one must be aware of the cultural sensitivity, that certain things are just not the local way.

24 Feb 2010

Annual Meeting Summary

The Hawaii Section Annual Meeting was held on August 27, 2009, at the City’s Frank Fasi Municipal Building. Based upon a tally of the votes received for the 2009 elections, the following were elected as incoming officers:

Steven Yoshida, President
Honglong Li, Vic President
Sara Toyama, Secretary
Robert Nehmad, Treasurer

The guest speaker from the State of Hawaii Department of Transportation (DOT) was Ed Stiffen, head of the Technical Design Services Office. Mr. Stiffen presented two ambitious DOT projects intended to relieve traffic congestion along Interstate Route H-1 and H201. He explained that both Maui and Kauai received $200 million for their projects, the Big Island $150 million, and it is now Oahu’s turn.
The PM contra flow project between Radford and Waiawa is a Design-Build project. The goals of this high impact PM contra flow project is to increase the westbound peak capacity, allow contra flow for the entire freeway, and do so within a short lead time. It is scheduled to be awarded in April 2010 with construction completed by the end of 2011.
The eastbound widening project between Ola Lane and Vineyard, involves modifying six structures without taking away any right-of-way from residents. It is also a Design-Build project with an anticipated completion date in mid 2014.

10 Aug 2009

July Meeting Summary

The Hawaii ITE had its monthly luncheon meeting on July 8th, 2009 at the City’s Frank Fasi Municipal Building. President Don Hamada opened the meeting by announcing the annual meeting in August.

The speaker, Mr. James Tokishi, is the Hawaii Student Chapter President. He briefed the ITE members the student chapter’s activities for the past two years and thanked Local companies’ support on the student chapter’s data collection research.

Mr. James Tokishi presented his recent presentation at 2nd International Freeway and Tollway Operations Symposium. His presentation summarized the impacts of nine alternatives on the traffic congestion which occurs every day in the H-1/H-201 corridor in Honolulu. Nine Alternatives included that the reversible HOV lanes, Pearl Harbor Tunnel, Pearl Harbor Ferry, Rail, and etc. The mini tunnels were proposed to relieve traffic congestions after the HOV lanes touch down in downtown. The delay and travel time were used as the performance measures and VISSIM was used as the simulation tool.

Several members raised the concern among other questions and comments on the study’s cost-benefit analysis. It was expressed that construction cost for the mini tunnel may be greatly underestimated because of the underground utility relocation and the unknown geotechnical parameters. Mr. Tokishi acknowledged that the cost estimation deserved further investigation due to lack of detailed engineering.

01 May 2009

April Meeting Summary

The Hawaii ITE had its monthly luncheon meeting on April 24, 2009 at the City’s Frank Fasi Municipal Building.

The speaker, Mr. Steven Hogan, updated ITE members the City’s Honolulu High Capacity Transit Corridor Project. Mr. Steve Hogan is the City’s consultant, the Transportation Planning lead for PB Americas, Inc. He explained the rail technology selections and some examples from other metropolitans. The project cost, funding, and the construction techniques were discussed as well. The first segment of the project from East Kapolei to Pearl Highlands will break ground by the end of 2009 and is expected to be completed in 2013. The Minimal Operational Segment (MOS) from Kapolei to Ala Moana Shopping Center is projected to be operational in 2018.

The members asked the questions such as the comments received on FEIS, the project’s coordination with different City and State agencies, the project’s procurements process. Mr. Steve Hogan concluded by noting that the correct information regarding the project can be accessed at www.honolulutransit.org or the hotline 566-2299. At the end of his presentation, the latest Honolulu transit newsletter was distributed among the members.