The County of Kaua‘i is holding a community meeting to discuss the progress and status of the replacement of Olohena Bridge in Wailua Homesteads.
The meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 19, 7—9 p.m. at the Kapa‘a Middle School cafeteria.
“The county has made a decision. We’re going to present it to the public. We want the public to come and hear what we’re going to do,” said Beverley Pang, County of Kaua‘i community response specialist, by phone on Friday afternoon. An email message was sent to those who had email addresses listed with the Ka Leo O Kaua‘i public meeting program.
Pang said members of the Wailua Homesteads community who attended Ka Leo O Kaua‘i meetings since last March made it a top priority to ask the County to look for alternatives to the proposed replacement plan.
Those alternatives included a two-lane, arch-style bridge that the community thought would be faster and easier to build, and which would keep the rural lifestyle and would be kept up to standards.
Pang also said people expressed concerns that the original plan would take too long to build, emergency response would be delayed and rerouted during construction, and that the bridge design wouldn’t fit in with the “rural flavor” of Wailua Homesteads.
Presenting the information at Monday’s meeting will be Russell Sugano from the Department of Public Works and bridge consultants contracted by the county. Pang will be facilitating the meeting by presenting the necessary information and fielding questions.
“We’ve done the research and will present the results. The county Public Works department has made a decision,” she said. She said a group of the “powers that be” made the final decision, a group which included Kaua‘i Mayor Bryan Baptiste and the roads division of Public Works.
In the meeting, an update will be given, with an explanation of the alternatives, the current plan and the proposed timeline of the bridge construction.
Also to be discussed: alternate routes, emergency routes for police, fire and emergency medical services.
