Pearl Harbor, the U. S. Army hastily built an access road in 1943 across the Humuula plateau of Parker Ranch at . Since it was not intended as a civilian road, the simple gravel path was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the US Army Corps of Engineers in case of an invasion. Military vehicles of all types and treads traversed the Island for the next three years. Following the end of World War II in 1945, the Army turned over jurisdiction of the road to the Territory of Hawaii and it was designated "State Route 20". However, the territorial government had few funds to maintain the road, let alone upgrade it to civilian standards. Much of the paving dates from 1949. About the same time, Tom Vance, who had earlier supervised building a highway up Mauna Loa named for Governor Ingram Stainback, secretly used his prison laborers to start a more direct Hilo-Kona road. He started at a camp (still called "Vance" on USGS maps) which was exactly midway between Hilo and Kealakekua. The road extended in a straight line, heading for the pass between Hualālai and Mauna Loa. In 1950, the camp caught fire after construction reached . The public refused to allocate more funding when they discovered about US$1 million had already been spent, so the project was also abandoned. After islands became the State of Hawaii in 1959, Saddle Road was handed to the County of Hawaii and for many years only minimal maintenance was performed, leading to generally poor conditions and the source of the road's notorious reputation. Since 1992, there has been increased attention on the road, with efforts to rebuild and renovate the highway into a practical cross-island route. This resulted in repaving some sections and complete rebuilding of others. The entire road is now well paved, and in the uphill sections there is a separate lane for trucks and slower cars. Future Eventual plans are to complete a section past Māmalahoa Highway down to the coast and intersecting the Queen Kaahumanu Highway (state route 19) to support cross-island commuting by tourists and resort employees. The route for the entirely new sections of the highway was changed after the 2006 expansion of the military exercise areas. Completion of these projects represent a major realignment of island traffic patterns and conversion of this notorious roadway into a modern state highway. Major intersections Related