Fix It! This Wooden Footbridge In Windward Oʻahu Is A Survivor
It’s Groundhog Day in Windward Oʻahu, where a pedestrian bridge has been caught in a cycle of being destroyed, rebuilt and destroyed.
Months after being obliterated by a car, a rustic wooden red and white pedestrian footbridge on the edge of a busy highway in Windward Oʻahu is finally under repair.
Estimates vary for how long it sat in shambles.
Laetitia Atlantis, who runs Sunshine Art Gallery across the street, thinks it’s been about six months. Her employee Kyle Lawes thinks five or six months, “at least.” Justine Haltom, who lives up the road, thinks it’s been closer to eight or nine months.
This much is known: a state award for repairs was issued in January, with the cost increasing from about $62,000 to about $103,000 due to additional damage and an increase in the number of metal brackets needing to be replaced, public records show.
Crews began work this week, removing the wooden railing and installing yellow caution tape, traffic cones and metal brackets over the stream below.
Locals say the footbridge, which spans a culvert under Kamehameha Highway in Kahaluʻu, has been hit many times and seems in a Sisyphean cycle of repair.
Atlantis, who has worked at the art gallery for 21 years, and Lawes, who has worked there for 14, said they hear cars crash into the bridge almost every month, where the damage varies from light plank damage to the entire structure collapsing into the stream below.
Even cars that don’t hit it whoosh mere feet from the bridge. It’s a fast section of road, Atlantis said, unconducive to pedestrian travel. She won’t even walk 10 minutes to the 7-Eleven down the street.
“It’s too dangerous,” she said.
The state Department of Transportation, which is in charge of the highway, said it was checking into the issue but couldn’t provide details about past crashes. It said contractors had started construction on Monday with plans to finish by the end of this week.
Speeding is a big issue along Kamehameha Highway. The DOT has installed dozens of speed mitigation tools like bumps and raised crosswalks during the past few years, especially clustered in areas like Kualoa and Lāʻie.
These tools can be controversial among residents, said Rep. Lisa Kitagawa, whose district includes the broken bridge, with some requesting their construction in order to slow traffic while others who complain about their resulting noise and inconvenience request their removal.
Who Is Responsible?
Ed Sniffen, director of the state Department of Transportation, 808-587-2150.
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