Bridge to connect school, park
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer
'AINA HAINA — Construction is poised to begin on a pedestrian bridge at Wailupe Valley Elementary School that will link the campus to the city park next door and give students room for sports and other activities.
The state and city have reached agreement on maintenance for the bridge, and a contractor has been hired. Oceanic Companies Inc. was low bidder at $345,207. Construction should begin mid-month and take about eight months, said Carol Costa, city spokeswoman. The vision team project is being paid for by the city.
Since 1963 the school has wanted a bridge that would allow students to cross a dry streambed to get to the park. For years, a lack of money prevented the project. Once the project was adopted in 2001 as the area vision team's No. 1 priority, questions over responsibility for maintaining the bridge and wheelchair accessibility held up work.
The project first went out to bid late last year and came in higher than the $605,000 the city had set aside for it because it was designed as a concrete structure. The city revised the plans, and the result will be a steel bridge that will cost less.
"It took us three years to get this," said Joey Carroll, who had two kids in the school when the bridge became the area's top priority. "We got the kids involved, and it's been steady progress."
Several years ago the students appeared before the neighborhood board, wrote letters to the mayor and testified before the City Council in support of the bridge.
The school has no open space for physical education or play, and really needs the bridge, said state Rep. Bertha Leong, R-18th (Kahala, 'Aina Haina, Kuli'ou'ou).
The school is next to a ridge and its sloping grounds are unsuitable for play fields. Without a bridge, the only way officials could get students to the park was to consider it a field trip, requiring parents to sign consent forms.
Leong agreed to oversee an account to purchase paint to maintain under the bridge, and the state has agreed to take over maintenance of the bridge, Costa said.
Though the park doesn't have play equipment, the school looks forward to having access for recess and special events, said Wailupe Valley principal Jean Hartman.
"The bridge will allow us to give the older students a place to play and an option during physical education," Hartman said. "It will really open things up for us."
Tim McGivern, the school's SCBM chairman who has two sons at the school, said he was thrilled that construction is finally set to begin.
"I'm holding my breath, though," McGivern said. "It's gotten pretty far in the past only to have the rug pulled out from under it. When I can actually walk across it, I'll believe it."
Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.
