 Hawaii Route 200 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saddle Road, Daniel K. Inouye Highway | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained byHDOT | ||||
| Length | 52.7 mi[1] (84.8 km) | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| East end |  Route 19 inHilo | |||
| West end |  Route 190 south ofWaimea | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United States | |||
| State | Hawaii | |||
| Counties | Hawaii | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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Route 200, known locally asSaddle Road, traverses the width of theIsland of Hawaiʻi, fromdowntownHilo to its junction withHawaii Route 190 nearWaimea. The road was once considered one of the most dangerous paved roads in the state, with many one-lane bridges and areas of marginally maintained pavement. Most of the road has now been repaved, and major parts have new re-alignments to modern standards. The highway is mostly one-lane in each direction, but there are two lanes on the uphill portions. The highway reaches a maximum elevation of 6,632 feet (2,021 m) and is subject to fog and low visibility. Manyrental car companies used to prohibit use of their cars on Saddle Road, but now allow use of the road.[2][3] The highway experiences heavy use as it provides the shortest driving route fromHilo toKailua-Kona and access to the slopes ofMauna Loa and theMauna Kea Observatories.
Themile marker 0 is posted in Hilo on thetraffic signal at theintersection of Waiānuenue Avenue,Kamehameha Avenue and Bayfront Highway at coordinates19°43′36″N155°5′12″W / 19.72667°N 155.08667°W /19.72667; -155.08667. The route continuesmauka[colloquialism] along Waiānuenue Avenue to a little over a half-mile past the mile 1 where it veers left onto Kaūmana Drive near Gilbert Carvalho Park. Further along, Waiānuenue Avenue isRainbow Falls Park (Wai means "water" (fresh) in theHawaiian language; ānuenue means "rainbow". Thus "Rainbow Falls" is rendered as Waiānuenue).[4]
Starting at the “Y” junction adjacent to Gilbert Carvalho Park, Highway 200 continuesmauka (uphill) on Kaūmana Drive and provides access to neighborhoods overlooking Hilo. The road is quite narrow and windy with many blind corners, hiddendriveways and open drainageditches. Near mile 4 it passes Kaumana Cave, a lava tube. Just past mile 6 (coordinates19°40′51″N155°9′23″W / 19.68083°N 155.15639°W /19.68083; -155.15639 (Hawaii Route 2000)) is the junction withPūʻainakō Street Extension, (Hawaii Route 2000), completed in September 2004 as abypass of the above-mentioned windy sections. The intersection with Ua Nahele Street at mile 8 marks themauka terminus of Kaūmana Drive.
The official start of Saddle Road is at the “T” intersection of Ua Nahele Street at mile 8. This is the last neighborhood through which the route will pass. As it has from its beginning in Hilo, Route 200 continues to climb towards the Humuʻula Saddle betweenMauna Kea andMauna Loa. Therainforest of the Hilo Forest Reserve and Upper Waiākea Forest Reserve surround the roadway and begin to thin as theelevation increases. Quality of theasphalt surface is quite good on this side of thecrest but there are many curves and rises with limited visual distances. There are no tourist services or other infrastructure on the Saddle Road.[5]
Reconstruction of the sections from mileposts 11 to 19 and 19 to 28 was finished in November 2011 and October 2008, respectively.
The terrain becomes the high lava desert of the Humuʻula Saddle. Two roads intersect Saddle Road close to Puʻu Huluhulu at its crest near mile 28 at 6,632 feet (2,021 m) above thesea level, the Mauna Loa Observatory Road to the south, and the Mauna Kea Summit Road to the north.
The Mauna Loa Observatory Road is an unmarked 17.1 miles (27.5 km) long narrow rough (but paved) road which winds its way towardsMauna Loa Solar Observatory,Mauna Loa Atmospheric Observatory, andAMiBA on the slopes ofMauna Loa. It was connected in 1963 to the old Tom Vance road from 1950.[6]
The Mauna Kea Summit Road (known asJohn A. Burns Way) provides access to theOnizuka Center for International Astronomy (atelevation 9,300 ft (2,800 m) then climbsMauna Kea past theMauna Kea Ice Age Reserve to the height of 13,780 ft (4,200 m) at grades averaging 17% making this the third highestpublic road in theUnited States. The road is 14 miles (23 km) long, of which the first 6 miles (to the Onizuka Center) and the last 3 miles (4.8 km) are paved. Puʻu Wēkiu is the highest point in Hawaiʻi at 13,796 ft (4,205 m) and is home toPoliʻahu,Goddess ofSnow.Mauna Kea Observatory on the summit, an ideal location forastronomical seeing, is under the jurisdiction of theUniversity of HawaiʻiInstitute for Astronomy.
West and northwest of these turnoffs, the 6.5-mile (10.5 km) segment of Route 200 from milepost 28 to 35 was dedicated and opened to traffic on May 29, 2007, with SenatorDaniel K. Inouye as the keynote speaker and other local dignitaries. The new section was constructed to fullfederal highway standards, with wide shoulders, rumble strips, good signage and emergency phones at regular intervals.
From milepost 35 to 44 the road passes the main gates ofPōhakuloa Training Area andBradshaw Army Airfield before continuing across the military reservation. Military vehicles – includingarmored personnel carriers – occasionally cross or occupy the roadway.Artillery exercises, including live fire, are not uncommon. with batteries set up along the roadway firing towards Mauna Loa. This section of the road was repaved in the summer of 2008, greatly improving the conditions.
On August 18, 2009, the completely rebuilt section, from milepost 35 to 42, opened to public travel. The realignment relocated the highway north to the Mauna Kea side of the Army base and Bradshaw Army Airfield.[7]
A new section starting near mile marker 42 that bypasses Waikiʻi and connects to Māmalahoa Highway near mile marker 14,19°50′39″N155°44′53″W / 19.84417°N 155.74806°W /19.84417; -155.74806 (New western end of Saddle Road) opened September 7, 2013. At this time, the highway was officially renamed theDaniel K. Inouye Highway in honor of the late senator from Hawaii.[8]
This new section avoids the old route, where from milepost 44, near Kilohana, to theMāmalahoa Highway the road retained its original character, a narrow ribbon of poorly maintainedpavement with crumbling edges. On the old section, there are several one-lane bridges, blind curves and hills. It is common for drivers to negotiate the center of the road to avoid the rough shoulders, moving back into the lane only when necessary to pass traffic proceeding in the opposite direction. The route is quite scenic with views of the coastline, theHualālai andKohala volcanoes, winding its way acrossParker Ranch and through the development ofWaikiʻi.
The original western terminus of Route 200 comes at its junction withMāmalahoa Highway (state route 190) six miles (9.7 km) towardKona ofWaimea (coordinates19°56′10″N155°41′14″W / 19.93611°N 155.68722°W /19.93611; -155.68722 (western end of Saddle Road)).[9]
_just_west_of_Mauna_Kea_State_Recreation_Area_in_Hamakua_District%2c_Hawaii_County%2c_Hawaii.jpg)
In May 1849, Minister of FinanceGerrit P. Judd proposed building a road directly between the two population centers of theIsland of Hawaiʻi. Using prison labor, it started nearHolualoa Bay at19°35′57″N155°58′26″W / 19.59917°N 155.97389°W /19.59917; -155.97389 (Judd Road west) and proceeded in a straight line up to the plateau south ofHualālai. After ten years only about 12 miles (19 km) were completed, when work was abandoned at19°38′38″N155°45′12″W / 19.64389°N 155.75333°W /19.64389; -155.75333 (Judd Road east) when the 1859 eruption ofMauna Loa blocked its path.[10]Although destroyed at lower elevations due to residential development, it can still be seen on maps as the "Judd Trail".
While planning for the defense of theHawaiian Islands in the wake of theattack on Pearl Harbor, theU. S. Army hastily built an access road in 1943 across the Humuʻula plateau[11] ofParker Ranch at19°41′44″N155°29′8″W / 19.69556°N 155.48556°W /19.69556; -155.48556 (Humu‘ula Saddle).[12] Since it was not intended as acivilian road, the simple gravel path was built by theCivilian Conservation Corps and theUS Army Corps of Engineers in case of an invasion.[13]Military vehicles of all types andtreads traversed the Island for the next three years.
Following the end ofWorld War II in 1945, the Army turned overjurisdiction of the road to theTerritory of Hawaiʻi and it was designated "State Route 20". However, the territorial government had few funds to maintain the road, let alone upgrade it to civilian standards. Much of the paving dates from 1949.
About the same time, Tom Vance, who had earlier supervised building a highway up Mauna Loa named for GovernorIngram Stainback, secretly used his prison laborers to start a more direct Hilo-Kona road. He started at a camp19°38′12″N155°28′52″W / 19.63667°N 155.48111°W /19.63667; -155.48111 (Vance) (still called "Vance" onUSGS maps) which was exactly midway between Hilo andKealakekua. The road extended in a straight line, heading for the pass between Hualālai and Mauna Loa.In 1950, the camp caught fire after construction reached19°37′17″N155°35′57″W / 19.62139°N 155.59917°W /19.62139; -155.59917 (Hilo-Kona Road). The public refused to allocate more funding when they discovered aboutUS$1 million had already been spent, so the project was also abandoned.[6]
After the islands became theState of Hawaii in 1959, Saddle Road was handed to theCounty of Hawaiʻi and for many years only minimal maintenance was performed, leading to generally poor conditions and the source of the road's notorious reputation.
Since 1992, there has been increased attention on the road, with efforts to rebuild and renovate the highway into a practical cross-island route. This resulted in repaving some sections and complete rebuilding of others.[14] The entire road is now well paved, and in the uphill sections there is a separate lane for trucks and slower cars.[5]
Eventual plans are to complete a section past Māmalahoa Highway down to the coast and intersecting theQueen Kaʻahumanu Highway (state route 19) to support cross-island commuting by tourists and resort employees. The route for the entirely new sections of the highway was changed after the 2006 expansion of the military exercise areas. Completion of these projects represent a major realignment of island traffic patterns and conversion of this notorious roadway into a modern state highway.
The entire route is inHawaii County.
| Location | mi[1] | km | Destinations | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hilo | 0.0 | 0.0 | Route 19 (Kamehameha Avenue / Bayfront Highway) | ||
| 6.0 | 9.7 |  Route 2000 (Pūʻāinakō Street Extension) | |||
| Waimea | 52.7 | 84.8 | Route 190 (Māmalahoa Highway) | ||
| 1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi | |||||
 Hawaii Route 2000 | |
|---|---|
| Location | Hilo |
| Length | 6.2 mi (10.0 km) |
_between_Kukuau_Street_and_Wilder_Road_in_Hilo%2c_Hawaii_County%2c_Hawaii.jpg)
Hawaii Route 2000 is a 6.2-mile (10.0 km) road on theisland of Hawaii, in the state ofHawaii. The road's western terminus is at Hawaii Route 200 (known as the Saddle Road). The eastern terminus is atHawaii Route 11 (known as the Hawaii Belt Road) inHilo where thePrince Kūhiō Plaza shopping center is located.[15] Route 2000 is called Pūʻāinakō Street Extension, East Pūʻāinakō Street, and West Pūʻāinakō Street.[16][failed verification] The project was planned since 1995.[17]
