"We've gone through the preliminary staging by getting the word out to the community, doing informal cost estimates, getting the project into planning and getting money budgeted," said Bremer, a Mililani resident and psychologist for the Department of Veterans Affairs at Tripler Army Medical Center.

"The City Council had a hearing on it a couple of years ago and there has been good support for the idea. We're about to go into the stage where we have to implement it."

The proposed route would provide a continuous path across the gulch for people to walk, jog or bicycle from Mililani to Central O'ahu Regional Park without crossing a street.

More importantly, it would allow riders to bypass narrow Roosevelt Bridge on Kamehameha Highway, a trap for bicyclists that is red-lined as "not bicycle friendly" on the Bike O'ahu map published by the state Department of Transportation.

There are alternative plans, including a less scenic route on Old Kamehameha Highway directly to Ka Uka. The bikeway could end there with people going to the park from Ka Uka.

Bremer, John Goody of the Hawaii Bicycling League and Kevin Kinvig are spearheading the move to get the bikeway built as members of the Kipapa Gulch pathway planning committee.

Goody, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and Belt Collins vice president, provides expertise from his engineering background while Kinvig, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's O'ahu resource conservation and development coordinator, is an expert at accessing federal grants for projects.

"It can be done, should be done," Kinvig said of the bikeway project.

There are several options but the best, in Kinvig's opinion, is for the state Department of Transportation to turn over control of unused Old Kamehameha Highway to the city, which can then turn it into a bike and pedestrian pathway to be supervised by the Department of Parks and Recreation.

The state is studying the proposal but has not yet taken a position, Transportation Department spokesman Scott Ishikawa said.

But the Transportation Department is moving ahead with planning for the widening of Kamehameha Highway between Ka Uka Boulevard and Lanikuhana Avenue in Mililani from two to four lanes, added Ishikawa.

Ishikawa said $1.5 million has been budgeted for planning, and the widening project will include Roosevelt Bridge.

City Councilman Nestor Garcia told the pathway planning committee the city's 2005 budget includes money for various islandwide bicycle projects and design of the bikeway is among them, said Kinvig.

"If both things happen," Kinvig said of the state turning over Old Kamehameha Highway to the city, and Castle & Cooke approving the pathway, "federal Transportation Department enhance funds might be available to cover 80 percent of the cost to build the bikeway." The total cost of building the bikeway is estimated at between $600,000 and $750,000.

With private donations covering the rest, the bikeway project could end up being a free ride for the state and city, added Kinvig.

"To move it forward at this stage, it needs a champion in government," Goody said.