Safer bike path to Waipi'o park sought
By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Central O'ahu Writer
MILILANI — Neighborhood bicyclists who have found it difficult to journey safely to the city's new Central O'ahu Regional Park across from Waipio-Gentry may eventually have a safer route along a proposed 2-mile bike path through Kipapa Gulch.
The Hawai'i Bicycling League is pushing an idea to use the Old Kamehameha Highway agricultural road that runs through Kipapa Gulch, in keeping with the city's Central O'ahu Sustainable Communities Plan for more bike and pedestrian routes throughout the region.
To get to the new park from Mililani, bicyclists have to cross Kipapa Gulch on Kamehameha Highway. The narrow stretch of highway has been labeled "not bicycle friendly" on the state's Bike O'ahu guide map.
The H-2 Freeway, another route between Mililani and Waipio-Gentry, does not allow bicyclists.
"If Kamehameha Highway heading over Kipapa Gulch is already dangerous for motorists, can you imagine what it must be like for bicyclists?" said David Bremer of the Hawai'i Bicycling League, who spoke before the Mililani Neighborhood Board last week.
Bremer said the proposed path would reduce the need for parking at the regional park. There is no timeline or estimated cost for the project.
The Mililani board voted unanimously in favor of the bike path, authorizing $50,000 in city money for a planning study. (Each of the 32 O'ahu neighborhood boards is allowed to determine how $1 million from the city's capital improvement program is spent on area projects.)
The bike/pedestrian path would begin at the end of Anania Drive in Mililani, cross a concrete bridge over Kipapa Stream and slope up to the other side through fallow pineapple fields to Kamehameha Highway. From there, riders could access the north end of Central O'ahu Regional Park on a Kamehameha Highway crosswalk or a proposed walk bridge.
"This way, bicyclists don't have to load their bikes into their cars just to ride at the park, and kids attending soccer practice or other sports activities can just bike down there," Bremer said. "While paving along the road has degraded in sections, it seems repaving would be a simple matter."
Harry Saunders, president of Castle & Cooke Homes Hawai'i Inc., said he is willing to talk with Hawai'i Bicycling League officials, because a portion of the bikeway would be on Castle & Cooke land.
"Maybe we can make it part of our Koa Ridge medical community," Saunders said, referring to a proposed project nearby for which the company is seeking rezoning.
One neighborhood board member expressed environmental concerns, because the proposed bike route would cross over underground World War II aviation fuel tanks and pipelines that run from Central O'ahu to Hickam Air Force Base.
Bremer replied that the Air Force last month had removed residual fuel from four 2.4 millionigallon tanks in Kipapa Gulch, plus 20 miles of pipeline constructed in 1943. Designed to withstand enemy air attacks, the pipeline remained operational until 1993.
Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
