It's a project that has been on again/off again for years.
Now the Hawaii Community Development Authority appears ready to cancel a contract to expand Queen Street, between Kamakee Street and Ward Avenue.

Changes to the plan and delays have pushed the cost significantly higher, "The original budget for the entire project was about 15 million dollars. Now we're looking at a little it over 23 million dollars," said Daniel Dinell, Executive Director of the Hawaii Community Development Authority.

So the H.C.D.A. has sent out a letter giving business owners a choice.
First is to cancel the contract and do nothing, "Or option two is put a light at the corner of Kamakee and Queen Street.

Then when they have enough money they would continue from ewa of office depot," said Cliff Garcia, the owner of Tropical Lamps.

Garcia is all for a traffic light at the intersection. It puts him in agreement with the H.C.D.A. "The improvements on Queen Street are part of a systematic upgrade of Kakaako's infrastructure and frankly the safety of the public traveling in Kakaako," Dinell Said.

But it's not safety issues that have irked store owners along Queen Street for the past several years. "They have no plans of a permanent parking garage. They have a temporary until the project is done, then what happens," Garcia said.

Besides parking problems Garcia and other property owners are angry over a number of issues surrounding the on again off again project. "Seems like that's what the state or city does.

They build something then they break it down, and that's what's going to happen on their plan of the rail coming down Queen Street," Garcia said.

A new rail route could land right in the area in the next ten to twenty years. Dinell says the H.C.D.A. is willing to work hand in hand with the city as rail plans develop.

Business owners and residents can meet with the H.C.D.A. on Wednesday between two in the afternoon and six in the evening at the Kewalo conference room at Ward Warehouse.