State funding secured for Puna alternate route study

Big Island lawmakers secured $1.5 million to fund the Puna Makai (oceanside) Alternate Route Study after funding lapsed last year.

Lawmakers also secured $1 million for a Puna Mauka (mountainside) Alternate Route Study. The hope is that the state and county will work collaboratively in completing these studies.

Puna Rep. Greggor Ilagan has been championing the makai study for several years.

“I’ve always been advocating for the makai, but what I’m hearing from administration from county and state is mauka is more doable,” Ilagan said in relation to the studies. “I’m not here to do a doable project. I’m here to do a project for the community.”

The funds, outlined in House Bill 300 CD1, will support studies to identify potential locations for an alternate access route into Puna, which would improve emergency response, reduce residents’ commute times, and alleviate traffic congestion in the area.

“Hawaiʻi Island legislators came together this legislative session with a unified purpose: to secure funding for an alternate route that will benefit Puna residents,” said Ilagan. “This funding will help plan a new route to ease traffic and provide emergency access during natural disasters. On behalf of my community.”

Illagan said the money secured for the makai study will go directly to Hawai‘i Department of Transportation instead of requiring a county match.

State funding of $1 million for the makai study was initially approved in 2022. The funding expired on June 30, the end of the last fiscal year, because Hawai’i County failed to release its required $500,000 match for the study, which would have triggered the release of state funding, Ilagan said.

The lapsed funding further delayed the much-needed development of a road to alleviate traffic and provide another evacuation route for the growing population of the area south of Hilo.

Rep. Jeanné Kapela and House Majority Caucus Leader Chris Todd led efforts to secure $1 million in state funding for the mauka study, which aims to address the mountainside of the area.

Illagan said the mauka study requires a county match of $1 million.

“This funding is critical to evaluating the feasibility of this long-needed route for the Puna community,” said Kapela, who represents portions of Ka‘ū and Puna Districts. “Our residents deserve safe and reliable routes, which would deliver an improved quality of life.”

In the 2025 Legislative Session, Ilagan successfully secured $1.5 million in funding for the Puna Makai Alternate Route, the portion closer to the coastal areas in his district.

This allocation is contingent upon an additional $1 million in matching funds from Hawaiʻi County.

“This study has been long awaited and will explore alternatives to reduce the community’s dependence on Highway 130, the only major transportation artery in Puna and a common source of traffic congestion,” added Todd, who represents Hilo and Puna communities.

In February 2024, the Hawai‘i County Council initially failed to pass Bill 107, the study’s original funding measure submitted by the county administration, which would have accepted the state’s $1 million, which Ilagan was able to get allocated as a line item in the state budget in 2021.

It also would have allocated $500,000 from county coffers for the Hawai‘i County Department of Public Works to manage the study, whose goal was to determine where other routes mauka (mountainside) and makai (oceanside) of Highway 130 could be placed.

Currently, Highway 130 is the only state highway connecting lower Puna to Hilo, which results in ongoing traffic congestion and concerns over the lack of emergency routes for residents living in the lava inundation zones.

The council ultimately passed its own Bill 131 in March 2024, three months before the funding would expire. This bill accepted the state funding and increased the county’s match to $1 million, because it broadened the scope of the study.

On Monday, Ilagan noted that the need for an alternate route has been a top priority for Puna residents, consistently emerging as the most requested issue during the 48 town halls his office has hosted in Puna Makai over the past four years.

Ilagan said the success of securing funding was also made possible due to the strong support of Sen. Joy A. San Buenaventura, who advocated for the funding in the Hawaiʻi Senate.

“This funding represents a major step toward addressing one of Puna’s most pressing needs – safe and reliable access,” said San Buenaventura, who represents Puna communities. “For too long, our community has relied on a single highway that becomes dangerously congested during daily commutes and natural disasters.”