KEALIA — A temporary bridge is being built alongside Kuhio Highway, near Kealia Beach, and once it’s done it will be used to detour traffic for an upcoming federal project that will restore the currently in-use, existing Kapa‘a Stream bridge.
The state Department of Transportation project isn’t hard to miss. The support beams are already up and are visible from the highway upon reaching the Kealia area.
It’s part of a bigger project, too, one that involves a new roundabout, and is geared toward improving the intersection of Mailihuna Road and Kuhio Highway, as well as the safety of the Kapa‘a Stream crossing.
Workers who were busy on the project Friday said a big portion of the temporary bridge is already completed, and it wasn’t an easy project.
“It was an animal. It wasn’t an easy bridge to put together, but we got it done,” said construction worker Justin Smith. “It took us eight days to build. Now we are going to push it into place. We have to roll it across the river.”
Once that temporary bridge is finished, workers will move on to upgrading and replacing the Kapa‘a Stream bridge. The plan is to replace or rehab the existing bridge to address issues of width, load capacity, railing and transitions and approaches.
The Kapa‘a Stream bridge proposed project’s design has minimal changes. The single-span concrete bridge will be 190-foot long and the deck width of 42.5 feet. It will provide two, 12-foot lanes, and two, eight-foot shoulders. The bridge will need to meet the 40-mph speed limit requirement.
As of today, the existing bridge is 150 feet long by 38.5 feet wide. It is functionally obsolete, needs seismic upgrades and is scour critical.
The state says this project is one of 10 bridge projects to be delivered through a partnership between DOT and the Central Federal Lands Highway Division of the Federal Highway Administration.
The construction project’s contract was awarded on March 21, 2019, to Hawaiian Dredging Construction for just under $24 million.
“The Kapa‘a Stream bridge is 32 on the HDOT list of the top 50 bridges in the state highway system in need of upgrade or repair, and was originally built in 1953,” said Shelly Kunishige, state DOT spokeswoman.
She continued: “Upon its completion, the Kapa‘a Stream bridge project will improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, improve operational efficiency at the intersection, improve mobility for highway users, address existing structural deficiencies, and meet current bridge-design standards for roadway width, load capacity, bridge railing and transitions, and bridge approaches.”
The state says there have been 17 crashes reported on or near the existing bridge between 2006 and 2010. The department aims to reduce those statistics by these changes to Kapa‘a Stream bridge combined with future plans to install a roundabout at the Kuhio Highway and Mailihuna Road intersection.
According to drawings of the proposed project, the roundabout would have four points of entry and exit: Mailihuna Road, an entrance and exit on Kuhio Highway going both directions, and an opening that leads to the current dirt parking lot on the south end of Kealia.
Another alternative being considered to help improve traffic at the intersection is a set of traffic and pedestrian lights.
A date for construction on the planned roundabout has not yet been set.
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Stephanie Shinno, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0424 or sshinno@thegardenisland.com.
