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Citing traffic signals that melted on their poles during intense sunshine over the weekend in south and west island, Maui officials are researching heatwave-resistant materials for the vital transportation gadgets.
"Never seen anything like it in my life," said Jorge Villanueva, a field supervisor with the county's transportation department, while repairing a melted traffic signal in Kihei on Monday. "It's alarming, because we've only seen damaged signals in October, and even then it was just slight bending like old vinyl record LPs.
"But this time it's a full-fledged melt-o-rama," he said. "It's as if October got here way early. I blame climate change."
Residents and businesspersons alike complained of unusual heat in Kihei and Lahaina through the weekend and into Monday.
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County transportation officials luckily had spare traffic signals on hand to quickly replace the melted models, avoiding too much traffic disruption.
Still, residents living near Kalama Park in Kihei are proposing that the county install little fans near the traffic signals in the center part of town, where it's bound to get super-duper hot once again.
HEAT VICTIM: A traffic safety cone injured by this week's heatwave in Lahaina lies waiting for paramedics to arrive."Why do we have to bear the brunt of all the heat on island?" asked Karen Lunahoomalu, in front of Foodland on Monday. "We should at least get some protection for our traffic signals so they don't melt again. The fans can be set to turn on only in certain high temperatures."
County officials said they are confident that there are newer traffic signals out there made from the same materials as the space shuttles, which would last just fine without fans.
"We would just have to paint them black and we'd be good to go," said Jared Ikeole, traffic signal analyst with county transportation. "And I'm not even going to make a joke here about the potential for them exploding. That would be inappropriate."
