As announced last month, the City & County of Honolulu will soon be repaving all of Laie's roadways as part of a larger project to repave streets open for public use along the Windward coast.
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| The City has begun preparation work for repaving Laie's streets (Naniloa Loop, July 2015) |
Hawaii Reserves, Inc., recently announced that it will make some improvements to Kulanui Street in coming weeks, as part of that project.
"Kulanui Street is one of the major collector streets in Laie and is used by residents, students and visitors travelling in cars and on bikes," said Eric Beaver, president of HRI.
He noted that the current width of the street is not ideal for heavy vehicular and bike use. Also, the perpendicular parking on Kulanui is unsafe because it limits sight distances along the street and at intersections, and it detracts from the streetscape.
"The planned upgrades will increase safety along the street and help beautify the area," remarked Beaver. The plan is to:
- Increase the vehicle travel way to 24 feet
- Add 6 feet to each side of the street for bike lanes
- Change perpendicular parking to parallel parking along the street
- Install trees and irrigation along the street to beautify the streetscape
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Schematic layout of Kulanui Street improvements
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Conceptual digital graphic of Kulanui Street improvements
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The repaving project is expected to begin the last week in August.
Once preparation work begins, Kulanui residents have been asked to temporarily park on adjacent side streets as needed, and on their own properties where possible. HRI will also keep the Temple Gardens parking lot open 24/7 as an overflow parking lot during the construction period.
Questions about the project may be directed to Jeffrey Tyau, HRI Vice President of Operations, at 293-9201.
"We appreciate everyone's patience as these improvements are installed and the City repaves Laie's streets," said Beaver.
The extremely popular Ken's Fresh Fish of Hauula will be coming soon to Laie, specializing in fresh seafood to go.
Land management company, Hawaii Reserves, Inc., recently announced the move via signage at the Laie Country Store building, in the space previously home to Country Rides & Grinds.
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| Kenny Broad and Melanie Hiram-Broad of Ken's Fresh Fish |
Besides ahi katsu fish plates, poke bowls, and other popular seafood fare, "Ken's" will continue to be a wholesale distributor to area markets.
In fact, the phenomenal, high volume plate lunch sales of "Ken's" started from the humble beginnings of wholesale buyers simply wanting to sample the catch of the day.
"We went from fresh fish samples, to buyers asking for some rice on the side, to now selling about 400 plates a day when we're open", said Kenny Broad. "We've gotten so popular that it's time to move to the next level with a full blown restaurant and distributor space."
Broad and his team of employees, family and friends are currently renovating the new location and hope to be open towards the end of this year or early next year, pending construction permits.
"People love our seafood because it's fresh - why eat fish from somewhere else when you can eat fish just caught, right here in our own bays locally?", says Broad. "You can taste the difference."
We are excited to see a successful, local business with deep family roots in the area come to Laie.
Castle Medical Center Clinic
Also coming soon to our community is Castle Medical Center Clinic, to be located in the former Bank Of Hawaii space at the Laie Shopping Center. Castle is currently renovating the space and hopes to be open to the public in January 2016.
The new clinic will be an extension of the Castle Medical Center in Kailua, providing secondary and tertiary medical care. Castle Medical will also provide various specialty services to minimize the burden of residents having to drive to its Kailua facility.
As the sign above notes, Dr. Marc Shlacter, "The Country Doctor" will relocate his practice to the clinic and be affiliated with Castle Medical.
As part of the move, Hawaii Reserves is in discussions with ACE Hardware about possibly expanding ACE into the shopping center space currently occupied by Dr. Shlacter's practice. This would add a little over 1,400 square feet to the hardware store, allowing more products to be offered to the community.
