Connecting the coastal path

KAPAA — Don Bruce has visited Kauai dozens of time for the past 30 years and will tell you that the island’s coastal path, Ke Ala Hele Makalae, is one of his favorite places.

“I’ve stayed at the Wyndham Bali Hai on the North Shore and I think along the golf course you can ride your bike but that’s about it,” the Lake Tahoe, Calif., native said Wednesday as he took a break at the Waikaea Small Boat Harbor comfort station. “I’ve stayed at The Point at Poipu and what have you got down there — some streets with roundabouts. But this trail is remarkable — it’s one of my favorite. I love it.”

But what Bruce said he and other path users have been waiting for over the years is the connection between Waipouli Beach Resort to Coconut MarketPlace to completely connect Lydgate Park to Kuna Bay.

The segmented path, in its current state, runs from Kuna Bay to the Waipouli Beach Resort and from Coconut MarketPlace to Lydgate Park.

“Because of this bike path, I gravitate toward this area, so this is where my money goes,” Bruce said. “I think it’s a big draw for people everywhere.”

Bridging the gap

Plans for connecting the coastal path date back to 2007, when county officials completed an environmental assessment for the bike and pedestrian path from Lydgate Park to Lihi Park.

A path alignment selected at the time would have taken path users away from the coast near Kinipono Shopping Village and through undeveloped parts of Wailua Houselots and Waipouli before connecting back to the path along the Uhelekawawa Canal between Kauai Village Shopping Center and Waipouli Town Center.

Further design and engineering studies dating back to at least 2012, however, later ruled out that option because it would have required path users to cross the temporary bypass road once and Kuhio Highway twice.

“When the mayor took office in 2008, he re-evaluated the plans for this segment and felt that it was important to keep the primary route for the path makai of the highway to the greatest extent possible, so the decision to postpone the proposed mauka route and proceed makai was made.”

But by then, $3.38 million was allocated to county contractor Earthworks Pacific, Inc. in 2012 for work on a 0.75-mile segment of the coastal path from Lihi Park to the Uhelekawawa Canal pedestrian bridge between the Kauai Village Shopping Center and Waipouli Town Center.

That pedestrian bridge was built by Kauai Village Shopping Center developers in 2008 and was previously integrated into the plan to connect the existing coastal path.

Another $5.6 million was awarded to Kaikor Construction to construct a path segment along Kawaihau Road and constructing the path from the Bryan J. Baptiste Memorial Bridge to the Coconut MarketPlace.

Both projects were unveiled in September.

A total amount of how much money has been spent to date on the coastal path, both through county and federal funds, was not available.

The new, coastal route

What Department of Public Works officials say they are now considering is a 1.2-mile alignment that would take path users along a coastal route from the Mokihana Resort to the Coconut MarketPlace.

That would take path users from Kuhio Highway to the coast by two separate access areas — either from a path along the Uhelekawawa Canal or an area along the Kapaa Missionary Church.

The path, located primarily within the county beach reserve, would then connect up to Coconut MarketPlace through an access area through Kauai Sands and Aston Islander on the Beach Hotels.  

“Using public lands for the path to follow the coast will result in the best, most attractive facility that will most profoundly benefit the largest number of Kauai residents,” Kauai Path, Inc. Secretary Tommy Noyes wrote in a Feb. 10 letter to the Department of Public Works in support of a new path alignment proposal.

To accommodate the endangered seabirds that live in the area, the path will not be lit and those lights located at a proposed comfort station behind Kapaa Missionary Church will be shielded or fully cut-off, according to current plans.

Projected construction timelines and project costs, county officials said, have not been determined yet.

“We cannot commit to a schedule until we complete the environmental clearances,” County of Kauai Building Division Chief Doug Haigh wrote in an email.

• Darin Moriki, county government reporter, can be reached at 245-0428 or dmoriki@thegardenisland.com. Follow him on Twitter at @darinmoriki.