KAPAA — Three historic, single-lane bridges on Kauai County’s list for pending repairs are caught in a tug-of-war pitting preservation efforts against safety concerns.
County officials and many Wailua and Kapahi residents agree that something must be done to fix the aging Opaekaa, Puuopae and Kapahi bridges that date back to the early- to mid-1900s.
But what differs is how that task should be done.
Kapahi resident Doug Haigh, a Department of Public Works employee, said he was once a proponent of two-lane bridges and recalled feeling “mad as hell when the community stopped us from building a project when we were ready to build it.”
That all changed, however, one evening a few years ago when he picked up his aunt, uncle and cousin and brought them through the back roads of Kawaihau.
“When she (my aunt) saw the roads up there she said, ‘Oh, it’s a one-lane bridge,’ so it means something more than just traffic driving by,” Haigh said at a recent public meeting at Kapaa Middle School. “It’s a sense of place.”
Some residents say they would like to either see the bridges expanded to accommodate vehicles and pedestrian traffic or have the roads around them improved to create safer driving conditions.
Others say they prefer to preserve the historical bridges — all of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places — but replace aging reinforcement parts.
As of Sept. 30, the county has spent $935,114 out of the nearly $1.3 million in contracted funds earmarked for planning and engineering work on the three bridges.
According to proposed Department of Public Works plans, the width of all three single-lane bridges will remain the same and shared-lane markings for bicyclists will be painted on the bridge deck.
These plans also call for the rehabilitation or restoration of certain bridge parts, including the steel trusses on the Opaekaa bridge and wooden decks on the Kapahi bridges, and replacing or adding other reinforcement pieces like railings and beams.
Tonia Moy, a county consultant from Honolulu-based architecture firm Fung Associates, Inc., said all three bridges, at their current width, are experiencing a good traffic flow that should not be impacted significantly by the county’s long-range development plans.
A county study, she said, also found that only about five to six pedestrians on average cross the bridge each hour — well below the minimum of 100 people per hour threshold needed to affect the roadway’s level of service.
Some residents, however, said more must be done to make these bridges safe.
Wailua Homesteads resident Glenn Mickens said he would rather see new, two-lane bridges constructed to stem the number of accidents caused on one-lane bridges.
“One-lane bridges were built when there were fewer people on Kauai and fewer vehicles on the roads, so our highway engineers, in their wisdom, now build our bridges with two lanes for safety purposes,” Mickens said.
County Engineer Larry Dill said county officials recognize the traffic dangers caused by one-lane bridges, but said the county must adhere to federal historic preservation guidelines, because the bridges are funded, in part, by the federal government.
Leland Nishek of Kauai Nursery and Landscaping said he travels across Puuopae bridge regularly and was concerned current plans do not address road improvements around the bridge or the safety of drivers and residents who use it.
“The emphasis here has been safety, and to me, the safety issues have not been addressed,” Nishek said. “That bridge is not safe and that road is not safe for the community.”
Dill said a draft environmental assessment for Kapahi Bridge, the only project that has received construction approval from the County Council, should be completed by February 2014.
Bridge designs, he said, should be finalized by April 2014 and the bidding process could begin as early as the 2015 fiscal year, if the county appropriates funding for it.
The draft environmental assessment for Puuopae Bridge, at the intersection of Kipapa and Puuopae roads in Wailua Homesteads, is scheduled to be completed by May.
The design phase, Dill said, should be completed by July and the bidding process could begin as early as the 2015 fiscal year.
The final environmental assessment and complete designs for Opaekaa Bridge, according to county estimates, should be completed by November 2014.
