A Kauai community group is asking the County Council to restore the Kapaia Swinging Bridge, a link to the island’s sugar plantation past that has been closed since 2006 because it is badly deteriorated.

However, an engineering study commissioned by the county administration said the best solution would be to tear it down and build a replica.

Laraine Moriguchi, director of the Kapaia Foundation, said the group does not want the bridge torn down and rebuilt.

"Part of the value of it is the historic value," she said. "We never wanted a new bridge. We want that bridge to be restored."

The Kauai County Council will address the issue on Wednesday and Aug. 24, including a discussion on stabilizing the bridge as a short-term solution.

"There is a fear that the bridge at some point in time is going to collapse," said county Managing Director Gary Heu. "We are in the process of working with our consultant on what needs to be done, and associated costs."

The county built the 125-foot-long footbridge in 1948 so laborers who lived in Kapaia Camp in Lihue could cross Kapaia Stream to work the cane fields in Hanamaulu, Moriguchi said.

Use of the bridge diminished with the closure of sugar plantations and prevalence of cars, but it remains "a historic symbol of an era in Hawaiian history that permeates every facet of local culture today," Moriguchi wrote in her nomination of the bridge for the National Register of Historic Places.

The bridge was added to the Hawaii Register of Historic Places in 2008.

The county closed the bridge in September 2006 after it was deemed unsafe due to the deteriorating wooden planks and steel plates. Since the closure, numerous requests were made by a group of community members to repair it.

In January, a structural engineering firm, Kai Hawaii, conducted a study on behalf of the administration.

"His professional recommendation was to deconstruct the bridge and reconstruct it," Heu said.

The cost to rebuild the bridge, modified to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act standards, is estimated at $4 million, Heu said. It would cost $2.2 million if the county received a waiver from ADA standards, allowing it to rebuild the bridge at its current 4-foot width instead of 6 feet wide, council Chairman Jay Furfaro said.

Furfaro also said the county wants to see if it can get $1.8 million in grants, combined with $400,000 in county money to go toward restoration of the bridge.

Even so, Heu questioned whether the county should spend a large amount on the bridge at this time.

Moriguchi said the foundation has applied for grants totaling $35,000 and plans to apply for more.

Furfaro said, "The council wants to exhaust all possibilities for restoration of the bridge using grant money before the administration pursues a rebuild with money we don’t have."

Furfaro said the state Historic Preservation Division and the ADA compliance board provided a list of grants that could assist restoration efforts.

For more information on efforts to restore the Kapaia Swinging Bridge, go to www.savekapaiaswingingbridge.com.