By PETER SUR
By PETER SUR
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Work on the deteriorating 101-year-old Umauma Bridge along Highway 19 will get under way in a matter of months, following an announcement Wednesday by Gov. Neil Abercrombie that funds have been released for the $37.2 million project.
The release of $7.44 million in state funds was part of a major $147 million in capitol improvement spending that Abercrombie released, according to a statement from his office. The federal government is covering 80 percent of the bridge rehabilitation, or $29.76 million. Work is expected take two years.
The 278-foot long Umauma Bridge, located near the 16-mile marker of Highway 19, was built in 1911 to support railroad tracks over Umauma Stream. The underlying structure, unseen by the thousands of drivers who pass over it daily, is comprised of two rusting steel towers supporting six spans of riveted steel plate girders.
By 1953, the bridge and towers were widened to support a two-lane highway for vehicle traffic, and to add railings and a sidewalk. The bridge was retrofitted recently against earthquakes.
In 2007, Umauma Bridge was classified as “structurally deficient” because of corrosion of the steel truss towers, although the state did not restrict weight limits.
More recently, all three of the Big Island’s state senators co-sponsored a bill to waive for the next five years state environmental protection and historic preservation laws relating to construction projects on 11 critical bridges. Umauma Bridge was the only one on the Big Island to receive this designation.
“Umauma Bridge has been — if you look underneath, it’s in need of extensive repair. It’s been a concern,” said state Rep. Mark Nakashima, D-Hilo-Hamakua-Kohala. “Initially, because that bridge doesn’t have any alternate route around it, they (the state) will repair the bridge in place.”
The bridge is 110 feet tall, 38 feet wide and is described as “historically significant, due to its association with the Hilo Railroad Co., which played a major role in the development of the Hamakua sugar plantations and as one of the few remaining steel girder and trestle bridges that represent the work of John Mason Young.
As detailed in the final environmental impact statement released in February, the work will rehabilitate the old bridge while satisfying state historic preservation requirements and bring the bridge up to current federal highway safety standards.
Nakashima was told that the new bridge top, when completed, will resemble the new Kealakaha Bridge, which in 2010 replaced a dangerous curved bridge just north of Ookala.
But while that $38 million project involved the construction of a new bridge, work on Umauma Bridge will keep the existing steel support structures in place as nonstructural elements.
Concrete support towers will be built within the existing steel towers, the bridge deck and roadway shoulders will be widened to 44 feet, and a new concrete railing will be built.
The bridge will remain open to traffic during construction, although motorists may expect delays when one lane is closed for construction.
Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.