Planned bridge has Wahiawa and Whitmore Village residents divided

For 73 years, Whitmore Village, with origins as a Central Oahu pineapple plantation community, has been tied closely to Wahiawa town, also rooted in agriculture. Yet a major stream physically divides the two areas, which are less than a half-mile apart.

State officials have a plan to connect these two places by building a pedestrian bridge over a broad stream that leads to Wahiawa Reservoir, but the proposed roughly 200-foot-long overpass is causing a deep divide among area residents.

Some community members fear the link will be used in negative ways by drug users, thieves and the homeless.

Project opponents also argue that money for the bridge — an estimated $12.5 million to $14.5 million — can better be used to improve existing public facilities in their community.

Bridge supporters see the project as a path that facilitates walking and biking, especially for Whitmore residents going to work, school and a bus center in the adjacent town instead of driving 1.5 miles along Kamehameha Highway.

A bridge also is envisioned to help support a state “food hub” plan to reestablish agricultural production facilities in Whitmore using state-owned land and buildings once part of pineapple producer Dole Food Co.’s operations.

Divisions over the bridge plan were on display at a June 15 meeting of the Wahiawa-Whitmore Village Neighborhood Board at Wahiawa District Park where opposing views often drew lively applause.

“Fix what we have,” said Ursula Keohokapu, a 37-year Wahiawa resident. “This bridge is not going to give Wahiawa what Wahiawa needs.”

Keoni Ahlo said the two communities need a safe pedestrian and bike connection as an alternative to the highway, which lacks sidewalks in places.

“I actually took a bicycle and rode from Wahiawa to Whitmore last week, and it was pretty scary,” he said. “We’d rather not wait for tragedy to strike before supporting a safer alternate route.”

Carolyn Hayashi, president of the Leilehua High School Alumni Association, urged state officials and community members to address issues raised about the plan.

“We’re not two separate towns,” she said.

Ed Sniffen, deputy director of the state Department of Transportation Highways Division, acknowledged challenges.

“They are tough ones to deal with,” he said at the meeting.

Sniffen, however, also suggested that enough community support exists to deliver the project, which he said was identified 30 years ago by the community as a need.

Sniffen said DOT is moving ahead with the project after receiving money for the bridge from the Legislature two years ago. Since then the agency has been working on plans.

An initial public informational briefing was held in February at Helemano Elementary School in Whitmore Village, but a larger community meeting at the regional neighborhood board was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

In May, DOT published a draft environmental assessment on the project.

A contractor for the agency, WSP USA Inc., also sent a survey notice in March to 4,142 households in Whitmore Village and Wahiawa.

DOT said 345 responses to the online survey were received, of which 49% support bridge construction and 34% oppose it. Another 17% were neutral or declined to answer.

The survey also indicated that 36% of respondents said they would use the bridge while 53% said they would not.

“The responses suggest that while opposition to the project is a strongly held perspective in the community, there is an equally interested part of the community that intend to use and/or would support a separate non-motorized and accessible facility for pedestrians and bicyclists,” the draft environmental assessment said.

Most survey respondents (72%) were Wahiawa residents, and 22% were Whitmore residents, according to DOT.

Whitmore Village has about 990 homes and 4,500 residents. It was established in 1947 and named after Hawaiian Pineapple Co. plantation manager John Whitmore. Few businesses exist in the community today following the demise of plantation agriculture on Oahu in recent decades.

DOT’s proposed bridge alignment would run from Whitmore Avenue and through land owned by the state Agribusiness Development Corp., which is pursuing the food hub develop- ment plan.

After spanning Kaukonahua Stream, sometimes also identified as Kiikii Stream, the bridge would connect with one of three streets in Wahiawa: Palm, Cane or Koa.

All three streets lead to the Wahiawa Transit Center a couple of blocks away, and DOT said the city would maintain the bridge.

Palm Street is a mix of industrial and residential uses with no sidewalks. A 250-foot bridge would span the stream to Palm Street.

Cane Street is more improved with sidewalks and has largely civic uses, including a police station and courthouse. A 200-foot bridge is envisioned for this alignment.

Koa Street is another mix of residential and industrial uses without sidewalks. A 190-foot bridge would be needed for this crossing.

Some project opponents say these parts of Wahiawa aren’t safe for pedestrians.

Leilehua graduate Theresa Kuehu said she visited all three streets and views them as unsafe for kids going to school.

“I wouldn’t allow my own children to go through those areas,” she said.

Titus Ringor, a 14-year-old Whitmore Village resident and freshman headed to Leilehua in Wahiawa, said he wouldn’t feel safe traversing the Whitmore side of the proposed bridge pathway owned by the state.

“We shouldn’t be spending all of this money to build a bridge no one will be using,” he said.

A Whitmore farmer who identified himself as T.C. said he has concerns about people using the bridge pathway, which would abut his farm, to steal from him.

Keohokapu, the longtime Wahiawa resident, said the community’s homeless problem will be made worse with a new bridge, given that the homeless have made encampments under the Karsten Thot Bridge spanning the stream along Kamehameha Highway.

“The only people who are going to use this bridge are the people living under it,” she said.

Lilette Subedi, a representative of the Whitmore Economic Development Group, said safety concerns can be addressed by improving the area.

“I think it’s important having the pedestrian bridge,” she said. “I would use it.”

The neighborhood board deferred taking a position on the bridge plan until July, partly over concerns raised by Chairwoman Jeanne Ishikawa that people could take the online survey multiple times and that one survey question was changed.

DOT anticipates requesting bids for designing and building the bridge in September, followed by construction starting in early 2022 and completion in late 2023.