KAPA‘A — Jerome Freitas, also known as “The Shadow,” has a new complaint against Kaua‘i County — rusting girders under a bridge that spans a stream by the old Wong’s Care Home at the end of Kawaihau Road. “I am
KAPA‘A — Jerome Freitas, also known as “The Shadow,” has a new complaint against Kaua‘i County — rusting girders under a bridge that spans a stream by the old Wong’s Care Home at the end of Kawaihau Road.
“I am not trying to make (trouble), but I am thinking about safety for the public, the visitors,” said Freitas, a self-proclaimed government watchdog.
If the girders aren’t replaced or shored up, the bridge may collapse, he said.
A woman who lives near the bridge said she has called the county several times in the past year about the same concern, but county has yet to respond.
Freitas said county officials told him they would check out the condition of the bridge, but what frustrates him is that no reconstruction work has started.
Freitas, who acknowledges he has no experience in the building or maintenance of such structures, has raised numerous safety issues with county and state buildings, roads and bridges in recent years.
The county welcomes the reports from Freitas but says he barely gives enough time to correct the problems, according to a county Public Works official who asked not to be identified.
County engineer Donald Fujimoto said yesterday the bridge is safe to use, as far as he and his staff can tell.
“We are in the process of hiring a consultant,” he said of a process for the inspection of all county bridges and a determination on whether they are safe to use. “So that is happening this year.”
The county will lower the five-ton weight limit of the bridge if dangerous conditions exist, Fujimoto also said.
Related to the Kapa‘a bridge, Freitas also said the wooden planks need replacing. He said some bolts that hold the planks together have come loose and pose a safety problem.
Because the planks are loose, or are deliberately set that way, a sound similar to the clap of thunder shakes the air whenever motorists drive across the bridge.
“When my friends come over, they wonder what is wrong,” said the woman who has lived by the bridge for more than 30 years.
She said floodwaters tore out the planks during Hurricane ‘Iniki in 1992, and that the planks have been replaced three times since then.
• Lester Chang, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or lchang@kauaipubco.com.
