Pāʻia School to Benefit from Safe Routes to School Grants

Pāʻia School, file photo by Wendy Osher.

By Wendy Osher

Maui’s Pāʻia  School will benefit from nearly $1 million in infrastructure funds awarded to the Maui Public Works Department to improve sidewalk and safety near the school, transportation officials announced today.

The funds are from the state Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School program, and are part of a total $2.2 million appropriation covering projects within each county across the state.

The County of Maui Public Works Department was awarded $502,443 for frontage improvements at Pāʻia  School; and $455,495 for sidewalk improvements, DOT officials announced.

The frontage project includes the construction of a new sidewalk along the south-side of Baldwin Avenue from Anohou Street to the Pāʻia Gym, and in front of the school.  The project will also provide a new sidewalk from the alleyway off the Haʻawina Street and Palekana Street intersection within Skill Village to the existing Pāʻia Gym parking lot, the announcement said.

The sidewalk improvement project will include the replacement and widening of the existing sidewalk from the Pāʻia Gym to Pāʻia School, according to the DOT.

Other projects announced by the DOT and included in the funding release across the state are:

• $251,500 to the County of Kauaʻi Public Works Department for the Island-Wide Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon Crosswalks and Sidewalk Improvements Project;
• $416,540 to the County of Kauaʻi Public Works Department for the King Kaumualiʻi Safe Routes to School Phase 1 Project;
• $490,875 to the County of Kauaʻi Public Works Department for the Kōloa Safe Routes Phase 2 Project;
• $46,933 to Fern Elementary School, Oʻahu, for the Fern Elementary School Safe Routes to School Project;
• $20,094 to the non-profit PATH – Peoples Advocacy for Trails Hawaiʻi, for the Putting Our Plans to Work Project; and
• $24,630 to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Office of Public Health Studies for the Get Fit Kauai Safe Routes to School Project.