Opinion ID: 2635221
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Highway

Text: Sometime before 1991, the State approved highway designs drafted by a private firm for construction of the Pãhoa Bypass and the accompanying shoulder areas, earthen banks, and driveways in the area of the accident. The State constructed the highway and opened it for traffic in 1991 and has had the legal responsibility to maintain it since then. Howard Haymore, an employee of the State's Department of Transportation (DOT), supervised its construction. The highway runs generally north and south, but the section where the accident occurred turns to the west on a 2000-foot radius curve with a 4.5 percent downhill grade toward the north and an average 2.4 percent superelevation [1] down toward the west. The highway plans included a cutbank on the eastern shoulder and the construction of two driveways in the area of the Klink accident. During the construction process, the shoulder of the road was cut into in order to achieve a uniform slope. Prior to the March 9, 1997 accident, there was no drainage system at the site on the eastern shoulder but, in 1998, the DOT installed an interceptor ditch.