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Pu'u'opae Bridge

Kauai County, US

Pu'u'opae Bridge

The Puʻuʻōpae Bridge (also known as Kalama Stream Bridge and Kapaʻa Homesteads Bridge #2) is a one-lane, single-span, concrete-encased steel bridge across Kalama Stream located along Puʻuʻōpae Road between Kalama and Kīpapa Roads in the Wailua Homesteads area near Kapaʻa in Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi, United S

tates. Originally built in 1915, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. The design of the bridge is of little significance. Its endposts appear to have come from materials dismantled from the old Wailua River Bridge in 1919, and its original trusses were removed during repair work in 1958. It is currently in poor condition and may have to be replaced, rather than restored, according to Kauaʻi County Engineer Donald Fujimoto. It is listed on the Hawaii Department of Transportation's current statewide transportation improvement schedule. Much more significant is its role in the socioeconomic history of the island. It was built to facilitate access to the Kapaʻa uplands, which had been opened to homesteaders two years earlier. When Hawaiʻi became a United States Territory in 1900, most of its land was held in very few hands, primarily those of large-scale sugar planters...

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