Waimea's New Waiaka Roundabout Was Shaped by the Trucks That Use It

"People in the area are used to driving it," state Sen. Tim Richards told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald in August 2025. "If you see a big truck, you wait for it to cross. That's what we do."

That habit is how the Waiaka Bridge on Kawaihae Road works now, just west of Waimea town where Kohala Mountain Road splits off. In Richards' words, "You can't get a big truck on that bridge and a car. There's not enough room for both." The replacement is meant to end that waiting, and it was designed with input from the truck drivers themselves. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation (HDOT) now estimates that construction will begin in November 2026.

A bridge built for 1932 traffic

The crossing went up in 1932. It sits at milepost 58.88 on Kawaihae Road, and HDOT calls it the main link between the shipping port at Kawaihae Harbor and the rest of the island. All the harbor's freight heading east and upcountry uses a curved concrete deck about 26 feet wide, with a 3-foot wooden walkway bolted to the side.

Here's how the replacement compares, based on HDOT's description and the contract-award reporting:

The project also removes the bridge's central pier from the stream. The new bridge will cross in a single span.

The sources describe the bridge's condition differently. News coverage reports a National Bridge Inventory score of 26 out of 100, which classifies the bridge as "structurally deficient," though not unsafe, and makes it eligible for federal grant funding. HDOT's project page says inspections every two years find the bridge "structurally sound but eligible for replacement." Both descriptions point to the same thing. The bridge isn't failing. It just doesn't meet current standards for width, load capacity, railings, or bicycle and pedestrian access.

The roundabout the truckers helped redraw

HDOT describes the current Kawaihae Road and Kohala Mountain Road intersection as one that "can be confusing to motorists." The department chose a roundabout to replace the stop-and-go of the T-intersection with continuous traffic flow. It also expects the change to turn the broadside crashes typical of a T-intersection into less severe angled ones.

The roundabout's final shape came from a test run with traffic cones. Over two days in August 2025, crews laid out the planned circle at Waimea-Kohala Airport, and truckers drove tractor-trailer rigs through it. HDOT Director Ed Sniffen came out on the second day to watch. The test circle was 130 feet across, with a landscaped center surrounded by a truck apron. That's a low, mountable ring that lets long vehicles cut the corner without hitting anything. Richards pointed to the roundabout on Highway 130 at the Keaʻau end of Pāhoa town as an example of the same design.

The drivers found a problem. Richards, quoted by West Hawaii Today as calling the event "our little truck rodeo," described it this way: "On the right turn out to Kawaihae, they couldn't make the turn without finding the island. And if they climbed the island, they would need an escort, somebody to jump out and hold traffic on one side and everything. So, we adjusted the circle inside to make sure that … they could make that turn without having an escort."

That right turn down toward Kawaihae is the movement harbor freight depends on. So the final design was adjusted around the vehicles the current bridge handles worst.

Why a 1932 bridge outlasted every earlier plan

The state published the project's final environmental assessment in July 2022, after a draft in March and a virtual public meeting in April of that year. Even so, the contract wasn't awarded until April 2026. Richards has said numerous factors delayed the project, and the one reporting names is land. The new road alignment needs pieces of neighboring parcels, and reporting names comedian and actress Roseanne Barr as one holdout. Her Big Buck Trust owns the former Kamuela Museum site in the Lalamilo Houselots area next to the bridge. The trust bought the neighboring farm in 2007 and the museum two years later. In late 2014, Barr started an online campaign urging the public to oppose tearing down the bridge.

The museum has its own place in Waimea's history. Albert and Harriet Solomon opened their private museum on Kawaihae Road in 1968, across from Hawaiʻi Preparatory Academy. The collection ranged from Hawaiian royal artifacts and family history to Asian carvings, Apollo 11 items and World War II memorabilia. By a 2019 Tribune-Herald account, it seems to have closed in late 2015 or early 2016.

The bridge's historic status also needed formal review before construction. In February 2025, the State Historic Preservation Officer found that the project would have an adverse effect on the bridge. The bridge contributes to the Māmalahoa Historic District and is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The county's Cultural Resources Commission recommended a Memorandum of Agreement to mitigate that effect, and the agreement has been signed. Project records also list other history near the crossing. These include the former site of an 1865 Waiaka Catholic Church, a stream gauge on Keanuiomano Stream, and a precontact agricultural complex.

Once those steps were finished, HDOT selected Maui contractor Alpha Inc., whose bid came in at just over $21.7 million. In August 2025, Richards had put the projected cost at $25 million.

What the junction will look like through 2028

The schedule has slipped more than once. In August 2025, Richards said construction would start in June 2026 and finish in June 2028. When the contract was awarded in April 2026, the start date was still undetermined. HDOT's project page now lists these estimates:

1. Contract award: April 2026
2. Start of construction: November 2026
3. Completion: November 2028

As of early October 2026, HDOT's weekly lane-closure bulletin for the week of October 3 to 9 lists no work at the bridge. The Kawaihae Road closure that week is at mileposts 56.7 to 57.3, near Māmalahoa Highway and Hoʻokipa Street, well east of the crossing. For now, November is a target, not a confirmed start date.

Once work starts, drivers will use a different bridge. Planning documents call for a temporary detour bridge just upstream of the current one, so traffic can keep moving while the old bridge comes down and the new one goes up. Like the permanent bridge, the detour will cross the stream in a single span. HDOT expects lane closures, noise and dust, and says it will provide temporary access for people traveling through the area. No published plan yet says whether the detour will run one lane at a time or how pedestrians and cyclists will cross during the work.

Some of the work will happen overnight. HDOT's 2025 noise-variance application expected four concrete pours, each lasting up to two nights in a row and spaced four to six weeks apart. The Department of Health approved the variance from March 1, 2026, through February 28, 2029. It generally allows work from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m., and until 9 a.m. on Friday-to-Saturday nights. The application also proposed a staging area south of Kawaihae Road and east of the project, and advance notice to nearby residents and businesses before any night work. No dates for the pours have been published.

Some trips toward the coast have another option. A 2019 county subcommittee report describes Waikoloa Road as the main connection between Māmalahoa Highway and Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway. The same report says that in 2018, Kawaihae trucking interests expected to use that route if weight limits were placed on the Waiaka bridge. HDOT then changed the proposed limits, and the diversion didn't happen. That plan is from years ago. It isn't a current detour advisory.

A second truck-sized circle, farther down Kawaihae Road

The Waiaka project isn't the only roundabout planned for this corridor. The Waimea Roadway Improvements Project includes a roundabout about 125 feet across at the Kawaihae Road and Lindsey Road intersection, which has no signal today. It's being designed for WB-62 tractor-trailers, the same type of large rig. The wider project also includes bike lanes, sidewalks, median turn and refuge lanes, and landscaped medians along ʻŌpelu Road, Māmalahoa Highway and the stretch from Kaomola to Lindsey Roads.

That project is at an earlier stage. Gov. Josh Green released $1.4 million in April 2026, and it covers design only. Rep. David Tarnas helped secure $9.6 million in appropriations in 2023, and, according to Big Island Now, he said construction funding would be requested after the design is finished. At a Waimea Community Association meeting in March, Sniffen said there was no construction timeframe and that HDOT was still seeking public comment.

Both roundabouts are being sized for the largest trucks on the road, and the one at Waiaka is scheduled to start first. HDOT's Waiaka Bridge Replacement page lists the schedule and project contact. Its weekly Hawaiʻi Island lane-closure bulletin is where the first closure notice will show up when work begins.

If you live near the Kawaihae Road and Kohala Mountain Road junction and want to talk through how two years of construction might affect a sale, a purchase, or simply your daily routine, Missy Elliott is happy to help you sort out the timing calmly and with the facts in hand. Let's Connect.