
Olowalu, Ukumehame brace for change with state’s plan to move coastal highway inland to combat sea level rise
LAHAINA — Every day, Rylee-Ann Domogma drives the seaside stretch of Honoapi‘ilani Highway to and from her home in Wailuku and the Olowalu General Store run by her family.
She’s seen the ocean waves flood the coastal roadway during king tides. She’s noticed the sand levels starting to drop near Olowalu Beach. So she understands why the State of Hawaiʻi wants to move a vulnerable section of the highway inland to protect it from sea level rise and erosion.
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“It would be one, safer for the people commuting, and two, safer for all of the beaches,” Domogma said.
But relocation of the highway also would mean big changes for Olowalu General Store and others in the area who worry about the impacts to their small community, including bringing traffic closer to their homes and having more cars traverse through the wetlands and around culturally sensitive sites.
Last month, the department released a draft study on its proposed plans to move a 6-mile stretch of the highway from milepost 11 near Pāpalaua Wayside Park to milepost 17 in Launiupoko at the southern end of the Lahaina Bypass.
Work on realignment of the coastal road has been in the works for years. But with efforts to rebuild Lahaina town after the August 2023 wildfires still in the early stages, the state says it’s “now more urgent than ever” to shore up the primary link between West and Central Maui
But some at a community meeting at Lahainaluna High School last month expressed their concerns about the state’s plans.
David McPherson, who has lived in Kapaiki Village, also known as Olowalu Village, for about 10 years, said: “I would like to see it go a little bit higher, away from the homes.”
He also suggested guardrails on the new portion of the highway to keep people from wandering into wetlands or abandoning cars in the nearby brush.
Malihini Keahi-Heath, who has family in Olowalu, worries another road on the mauka side will invite more people and potentially more development to the quiet community. She said her family has seen a lot of changes to the west side over the years that often started with the building of a new road.
“I know progress is progress, but like I said, every time we had a road, something else is happening,” she said.
Ed Sniffen, director of the state Department of Transportation, said at the meeting that the southern portion of Honoapi‘ilani Highway “was identified as the second biggest area of concern in our entire state highway system for sea level rise in the future, but also from current erosion.”
Sniffen said the erosion might not be as obvious now because the department has moved lanes in the area three times since he joined the department in 2006.
The Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System maps sea level rise, flooding and coastal erosion up to 3.2 feet based on the top projections of sea level rise by 2100. Its models show that just half a foot of sea level rise would encroach on the southern portion of Honoapi‘ilani Highway and that 3.2 feet would completely inundate the entire southern section except for near Camp Olowalu, the only area where the roadway is not right next to the shoreline.

So while it could take decades before conditions force the road to close completely, Sniffen said the effects are already happening now.
The department studied four alternative routes each in Olowalu and Ukumehame and selected preferred routes for both areas out of the reach of the 3.2-foot sea level rise projected by 2100.
In Ukumehame, the 3.1-mile Build Alternative 1 would generally run along county and state lands but move mauka (inland) in the area of the firing range. The route proposes a 3,300-foot viaduct to avoid the firing range and to cross a detention basin for stormwater runoff. The 17 land parcels in the area include seven county-owned parcels, seven state-owned parcels and three privately owned parcels. It would affect five kuleana parcels — land granted to makaʻāinana (commoners) under the Kuleana Land Act of 1850.

In Olowalu, the 2.8-mile Build Alternative 2 would track toward the mountains of developed areas before connecting with the Ukumehame route. The state’s report says it would cross easements of the private subdivision’s approximately 60-acre greenway and would be more than a quarter-mile away from the Olowalu petroglyphs site, known as Pu‘u Kilea, as well as upper-elevation homes accessed by Luawai Street. The route would affect 18 parcels, including 15 privately owned parcels, two state-owned parcels and one county-owned parcel. It would also affect five kuleana parcels.

Sniffen said the state will need to work with property owners as it moves the highway, including paying fair market value to acquire land that the new highway will pass through.
Together, construction of the new routes is expected to cost about $160.8 million. The federal government has already provided $45 million in funding and the state plans to use a combination of federal and state funding to cover the remaining costs.
And while it’s a costly project, the department says this will save money in maintenance over the long run. Over the last decade, the state has spent $16 million on emergency repairs to the highway. Moving it mauka is expected to save about $22.5 million in pavement preservation costs and emergency erosion repairs over 20 years.
Improvements over time have included $9 million in seawall work in Ukumehame in 2011 and $1.1 million on realignment work in the last 10 years that included restriping, signage and guardrails, according to the department. In 2015 and 2016, the department also spent $600,000 in planning and design for a 900-foot stretch of roadway repairs and seawall improvements in Olowalu, but community opposition over potential impacts to coastal ecosystems halted the project.
Realigning the highway to avoid erosion, reduce traffic and improve emergency access has been a yearslong effort. In 2018, the state opened the 2.6-mile, $38.7 million southern terminus of the Lahaina Bypass that runs from “cut mountain” near Olowalu to Keawe Street at the Lahaina Gateway Center. Residents hope the state will soon build the northern portion to Kā‘anapali that aims to alleviate traffic by sending tourists past the heart of town and straight to resorts.
Sniffen said the state is focused on the southern portion because it’s at risk of falling into the ocean and because it doesn’t have the funding to build the northern portion yet.
There also are milestones the state has to meet as a requirement of the Congressional funding it got from Hawai‘i Sen. Brian Schatz’s office and the grant it received through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program under President Biden. By August, the state needs to finish the final environmental impact statement for the project. By 2027, they need to start construction, which is expected to take four years.
“So this project, for a lot of reasons, cannot sit and wait,” Sniffen said.

At Olowalu General Store, being right next to the highway is “a blessing and a curse,” Domogma said. As the only stop for food or supplies between West and Central Maui, the store and neighboring businesses like Leoda’s Kitchen and Pie Shop and the farmers market get plenty of business from passing travelers, but “if an accident happens, everybody’s stuck right in front of the store,” she said.
During the August 2023 wildfires, Domogma and her partner were at the store and were able to avoid the traffic that piled up in Lahaina Town as people raced to evacuate. Domogma, who lost her home in the fire and now commutes from Central Maui, agrees that the road needs to be relocated but worries the store will lose business and that the new roadway won’t solve the traffic problem. She pointed out that if it merges with Honoapi‘ilani Highway at the bypass and the pali, traffic will still get caught at two choke points the way it does with the Lahaina Bypass.
“I think how they’re envisioning it and how it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna be two different things,” Domogma said.
Nearby at Camp Olowalu, which offers campsites, tentalows, cabins and vehicle camping oceanside of the highway, staff also think the relocation project is needed.
“It’s long overdue,” Manager Tiare Christopherson said via email. “As beautiful as the drive is, having waves crashing over the roadway and ponding water (is) less than ideal, and can be dangerous and corrosive to vehicles. Moving the roadway away from the shoreline creates a healthier beach environment.”
Christopherson didn’t anticipate major impacts to the camp and hoped the work could happen “as soon as possible.”

Victoria Kaluna-Palafox has been involved in wetland restoration in Ukumehame. She says the area has been dry for many years and that the wetlands haven’t shown signs of life until a couple of years ago. She worries that construction of a major highway will traverse wetlands and important cultural sites located mauka of the current roadway.
“It really disappointed me because nobody listened, because it’s all about the road,” she said during the public meeting. “Cut the trees down — you got one road there. Use the old cane haul road.”

Sniffen, who stopped for a long conversation with Keahi-Heath, Kaluna-Palafox and other residents after the meeting, said there are areas of the planned routes where the right-of-way could be moved to minimize impacts to wetlands or cultural sites. In areas where they can’t be avoided, he said the highway could be elevated, though drilling shafts into the ground also raised concerns with residents. Sniffen said the state would need to do underground surveys to make sure it’s not impacting waterways or potential burial sites.
Because of the terrain and the proximity to the shoreline, the project will need a whole host of approvals from county, state and federal agencies.
Sniffen said the route the state is proposing is “a generalization” that can be finalized once the state completes its studies on the impacts to the environment.
“We’re building this because the community, through their general plans, through the county’s plans, said that this is a need for their community,” he said. “… We’ve never built any project where everybody is 100% happy with it. But we always work with everybody to see how we can make it better.”
For updates, visit www.honoapiilanihwyimprovements.com. Public comments on the draft environmental impact statement are being accepted through Feb. 24 and can be sent to ken.tatsuguchi@hawaii.gov.