HRS §46-15.9
County authority over disputed public roads
This section lets counties enforce traffic laws and fix roads when the State and county both claim ownership. It also says the public can use these disputed roads to reach beaches and parks, unless the road is private. Doing this work does not mean the county owns the road.
counties
The statute, as written — Traffic regulation; repair and maintenance; public right to use public streets, roads, or highways whose ownership is in dispute
(a) Any provision of law to the contrary notwithstanding, any county and its authorized personnel may impose and enforce traffic laws and shall enforce chapters 249; 286; 287; 291; 291C; 291E; 431, articles 10C and 10G; and 486, part III on public streets, roads, or highways whose ownership is in dispute between the State and the county. (b) Any provision of the law to the contrary notwithstanding, any county and its authorized personnel may repair or maintain, in whole or in part, public streets, roads, or highways whose ownership is in dispute between the State and the county. (c) No presumption that a county owns a particular street, road, or highway shall arise as a result of the county's performance of the activities allowed by subsection (a) or (b). (d) The general public shall have the unrestricted right to use public streets, roads, or highways whose ownership is in dispute between the State and the county to access the shoreline and other public recreational areas; provided that this subsection shall not apply to any private street, road, or highway whose ownership is in dispute. (e) As used in this section: "Public recreational area" means coastal and inland recreational areas, including beaches, shores, public parks, public lands, public trails, and bodies of water opened to the public for recreational use.
LawTrove is not legal advice. The summary above is a computer-generated restatement — the authoritative text is the official version linked above.