KULANIHAKOI RIVER GULCH BRIDGE PROJECT GOES BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD!!

Final permit application reveals major flaw

Linda (KCA), Wendy and Ty (DPW)

5/22/18 #kihei
This afternoon, we met at Public Works Director David Goode’s facility on the fourth floor with him and his engineers, Ty Takeno and Wendy Kobashigawa, as he responded to our request to discuss the contentious project.

Director Goode opened the meeting with a bombshell announcement that in attempting to secure one of the the two final required permits, the one concerning flood development, it was revealed that regulations prohibited their proposed construction of a temporary road for a temporary river crossing mauka of South Kihei Road (SKR). Ironically, KCA had opposed this for years, as we proposed a raised bridge on SKR which could be “dropped in place” rather than the proposed box culvert, eliminating the need for the temporary structures in the riverbed.

Our longstanding proposal for a much less expensive yet improved option to replace the deteriorated box culvert in the Kulanihakoi river gulch with a raised bridge is now in play with a number of other considerations. However, our understanding is most everything has to start from scratch, as all designs, permits and plans are voided, so it will seemingly be years before any actions take place at the location, with the possible exception of road closure to reinforce the current “temporary” structure.

To be clear, it is our understanding DPW only became aware of the problem the day before our meeting, yet they scrambled to prepare a potential list of six possible crossing options, with their respective costs, service life, road closure durations as well as advantages and disadvantages. As we were not aware prior to the meeting, our contingent has to bring all this to the entire KCA board before declaring any preferences.

Further, there is another new aspect in progress. STAY TUNED FOR THAT UPDATE concerning the County draft master drainage plan which can influence the next steps. Also there is the consideration of input from the Kula Makai Aha Moku.

So for now we are taking a breather while renaming vigilant to see what is the best course of action. You can find numerous historical reports on the KCA website here:

https://gokihei.org/?s=Kulanihakoi+bridge&submit=Search