By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Columnist

The county of Kaua'i, with the help of teams of volunteers and various government agencies and private concerns, has launched an aggressive new transportation system on the east side of the island: bike paths.

The few commuters who now bicycle from the bedroom communities around Kapa'a and Wailua to the urban center of Lihu'e face close calls daily when riding on the shoulders of 50-mph highways. And you can't get to several coastal sections without clambering over boulders and wading through swampy areas.

A new bike path route would carry two-wheelers (as well as pedestrians, and in some areas, equestrians) along a coastal route away from the main highway. A 2.5-mile section has recently been completed in the Lydgate Park area, between Wailua Golf Course and the Wailua River. It is a 10-foot-wide concrete path that will be blessed at 11 a.m. Nov. 15.

But that's just Phase 1 of a six-phase project that organizers hope will provide a car-free pathway for 17 or so miles, from Nawiliwili to Anahola.

The 4.3-mile second phase from the Lihi Boat Ramp in Kapa'a to Donkey Beach past Kealia is out to bid for construction, and includes a concrete path and a dirt horseback riding trail. Phase 3 runs from Lydgate Park to the Lihi Boat Ramp and has construction money allocated for 2004 to 2005.

Phase 4 from Ahukini landing to Lydgate Park is scheduled for building in 2006, and Phase 5 from Nawiliwili to Ahukini in 2008. The final phase, from Donkey Beach to Anahola, is being planned.

A coastal bike, walking, and horse path preserves public access to the coast by providing a route to it, said Thomas Noyes, general coordinator of the Friends of Kamalani and Lydgate Park, which helped work on the first phase. It also provides visitors with a scenic place for jogging, competitive running and biking, and residents with a safer place to ride their bikes between two of the island's major centers.

At the area near Wailua Golf Course, the coastline had been abandoned to trash dumping and late-night parties.

"If that real estate had been left in the condition it was in, it was going to get spun off into resort use. We wanted to preserve that area," Noyes said.

The group, initially under the direction of community organizer Tim Bynum, built a classic kids' playground in the rough shape of a wooden bridge: the Kamalani Kai Bridge. The bike path became part of the project, and sports fields, campgrounds and a pavilion are to be part of it, too, in coming years.

Jan TenBruggencate is The Advertiser's Kaua'i bureau chief and its science and environment writer. Reach him at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.