In the spirit of aloha, I suggest we in Honolulu push our elected officials to give the $25 million in federal funds allocated for the nonessential Ala Wai bridge, to Maui for the reconstruction of Lahaina.

The current Ala Wai bridge design is estimated to cost more than $60 million and features a culturally insensitive 18-story, lighted bridge tower with long cables extending across the span destroying the view of Diamond Head. It looks like it belongs in San Francisco instead of Honolulu. And it’s not a critical infrastructure project.

Reallocating funds from a nonessential pedestrian/bicycle bridge project to a critical rebuilding project would be a remarkable show of solidarity from Honolulu to Lahaina, from Oahu to Maui.

I recognize that reprogramming federal funds is not easy, but Hawaii’s U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz is on the appropriations committee, and he and the rest of our congressional delegation have done a good job in getting members of Congress to visit Lahaina and Kula to see the destruction for themselves. I believe they would be amenable to special legislation for the reprogramming of federal funds, if we in Honolulu are generous enough to recommend this.

At the community meeting on the Ala Wai Bridge proposal on Sept. 9 at Ala Wai Elementary School, most in the 100-plus-member audience did not want a pedestrian/bicycle bridge to be built. The most applause in the meeting occurred when the sign, “Rebuild Maui, Not the Ala Wai Bridge,” was raised.

But, should the decision stand to build another bridge over the Ala Wai — despite the McCully bridge being only 200 yards away and despite the incredible needs of Lahaina — the bridge should be modest and use as little funds as possible, with the caveat that unspent federal funds will be given to Lahaina. With costs over $25 million to be paid by Oahu taxpayers, all the more reason to have a modest bridge.

Even with a modest bridge, we must recognize that the people who use the Ala Wai park and gardens will be deeply affected.

The bridge would displace a canoe club that houses a historic koa wood canoe. Public parking for families who use the soccer, baseball and basketball facilities and the community gardens will be disrupted, and probably taken away by the years of bridge construction.

The proposed, very expensive 18-story steel cable bridge would be an affront to the culture of Hawaii. It would block the view of the canal and Diamond Head from as far up the Ala Wai as the Hawai‘i Convention Center. It will have nighttime lighting on it that would be shining into apartments on both sides of the Ala Wai. It would be a magnet for youth who will figure out ways to make the long steel strands into a zipline challenge.

According to the city’s description, “The bridge’s asymmetrical design in plan and elevation has elements intended to be an abstraction of local inspirations such as fishing nets, waterfalls, and traditional musical instruments.”

But it would take a miracle of imagination to figure out how this description has anything to do with the tower and steel cables.

Recognizing the history of construction projects in Hawaii, we know the disruption of life on the Ala Wai will last for many years, much longer than any timeline of project completion that the authorities will publicize.

We on Oahu have a unique opportunity to practice aloha to our neighbor island that is suffering so much.

In the spirit of aloha, I hope a decision to offer the Ala Wai bridge project’s federal funding to Lahaina is considered immediately by our elected officials.

Ann Wright is a retired U.S. Army colonel and former diplomat; she is a member of Hawaii Peace and Justice, Veterans for Peace and Oahu Water Protectors.