Palani Road to get New Street Lights

Traffic delays are expected as new streets are installed along a section of Palani Road.

Forty-eight Lights will be installed from the Hina Lani Street intersection south toward the Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway intersection, County of Hawai‘i Department of Public Works Traffic Division reported Monday.

Work will be conducted between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Dec. 3, weather and construction conditions permitting.

Denise Laitinen, spokeswoman for DPW, said installation might take a couple days depending on how much is completed on Tuesday.

According to DPW, one lane will be closed intermittently during this work period and traffic flow will be controlled by special duty officers. Motorists are advised to expect delays and are encouraged to use alternate routes.

The installation is part of the county’s streetlight improvement program, with the goal to upgrade the lighting system on the island. The project was implemented in three phases.

The first will change out existing dim LED lights on county roads by September 2020, starting with 1,500 lights on main connector roads in South Hilo and North Kona. Estimated cost of this phase is $1 million.

Phase two will increase the number of streetlights islandwide by adding lights to existing utility company-owned poles. Phase Three will add streetlights, which will be installed on new County-owned poles.

As part of the streetlight improvement program, the County is launching a pilot project installing and monitoring new smart technology streetlights in Hilo, on Kapi‘olani Street between Lanikaula and Mohouli Streets from September to December 2019. The smart lights can be monitored remotely from a computer, thereby reducing the cost of sending road crews to visually inspect the lights.

Based on the results of that pilot program, the new smart streetlights will be installed islandwide in Phases Two and Three. Cost estimates for the smart lights are not available at this time.

If there are any questions or concerns, call the Traffic Division at 808-961-8341.