Gov. David Ige's decision to defer indefinitely almost all major new projects to increase highway capacity and reduce traffic congestion on state roadways is a major policy shift, but Ige says he had little choice.
In an interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Ige said the complex, large-scale "capacity" highway projects being deferred are often hugely expensive, and that the Department of Transportation must focus more of its resources on highway maintenance.
"The reality is, we only have so much dollars, and we're trying to manage that as best as we can," Ige said. "If we do one of those capacity projects, it pretty much obliterates the funds available for, like, a long time. I think it is about trying to find balance."
Public opinion polls in recent years show traffic congestion is regularly at or near the top of the list of Hawaii voters' concerns, and many of the projects the administration is deferring were promised to communities years ago. Many residents are frustrated at the amount of time they sit in traffic, but Ige said people are also concerned about the condition of state highways.
Shifting more state highways funding away from capacity projects to maintenance is partly "catch-up, because we haven't been spending what we should have been spending to maintain existing roadways," he said.
"For those of us especially on the West side and in the rural communities, we've all had the experience where the state didn't repave, and we had broken-down, almost undrivable roads for a long time because all of the money was going into these capacity projects," Ige said.
