Emergency repairs to Kolekole Bridge should be complete in July

Kolekole Bridge needs one more month before its weight limit will return to 40 tons.

An $8 million emergency bridge repair project by the state Department of Transportation originally was estimated to end in June, and would raise the bridge’s weight limit from its current 12 tons back to 40 tons. However, a DOT representative said the project has been delayed slightly.

“The bridge will be returned to its unposted weight limit of 40 tons in July,” Shelly Kunishige, DOT spokeswoman, said Tuesday. However, she did not have a specific date in July for the project to be completed.

Kunishige said the completion date was pushed back partly because of some rained-out work days, and because some crew members had to take time off because of COVID-19. In addition, she said some equipment and materials were delayed in their transportation to the site.

The weight limit on the bridge, which is located north of Honomu on Highway 19, was dropped to 4 tons in September 2021 after a DOT bridge inspection, and was raised back to 12 tons later that month after emergency welding work on the trusses under the bridge.

The $8 million emergency repair work since then has been to install a series of steel girders beneath the bridge connected to a trestle above it, in order to take most of the bridge’s weight off of its aging trusses.

Kunishige said a permanent repair project for the bridge, as well as lead remediation work at Kolekole Beach Park below the bridge, is expected to begin in Spring 2024, pending legislative approval, but with a much steeper estimated price tag — about $65 million, she said.