Saddle Rd bypass under construction at Pohakuloa Training Area. (Baron Sekiya/Hawaii247.com)

MEDIA RELEASE

Members of the Saddle Road Task Force, federal, state and county government officials, and island residents will gather Thursday, Dec. 11 to dedicate the next segment of Saddle Road.

U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye will deliver the keynote address with remarks by Federal Highway Administration representative Rick Suarez, Mayor Billy Kenoi and Walter Kunitake, co-chairman of the Saddle Road Task Force, a citizen advisory group. 

This is phase two of the newly aligned Ala Mauna Saddle Road and now completes roughly 17 miles of the east-west connector for the Big Island.

“On Thursday we will be delighted to see the next phase of this important highway completed and is the results of many years of meaningful work on this project,” Kunitake said.  

Construction funding for the Saddle Road improvement project is being made available from several sources: U.S. Department of the Army, Defense Access Road Program and Ecosystem Management Program, U.S. Congress, and Hawaii Department of Transportation. 

Construction of the remainder of the Saddle Road project will be phased as funds become available.

Ala Mauna – Saddle Road is the most direct, shortest route between the east and west sides of the island, yet carries one of the highest accident rates of any road of its classification in Hawaii. 

The Saddle Road improvement project will make the road safer and easier to use by eliminating narrow lanes, limited lines of sight, numerous roadside hazards such as bridge parapets, rough road edges, and limited drainage during rain storms and military vehicles frequently crossing the road as it passes through the Pohakuloa Training Area.

Ala Mauna, the traditional name for this early transportation route, served native uses of the Humuula area of the Big island including bird catching and adze quarrying. They were replaced by sandalwood harvesting and hunting wild cattle, and ultimately by ranching and astronomy. 

Over time, travelers whose only choice was once ancient footpaths, shifted to horses and wagons, then to automobiles. Roadways were improved and travel time shortened.

In 1943, the original Saddle Road was built as a gravel roadway by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for access to the island’s interior in the event of a Japanese invasion during World War II. Then in 1949 the Saddle Road was completed as a paved road.

What began as a military access road has since become an important cross-island link, which also provides the only paved access to Mauna Kea Science Reserve International Observatory Complex, Pohakuloa Training Area Base, Mauna Kea State Park, and public lands and forest areas for hunting, gathering and ranching.