Hilo's Century-Old Four Mile Creek Bridge Clears Environmental Review, Nears Construction

The Four Mile Creek Bridge, sitting at the south end of Kilauea Avenue, was originally built in 1916, and for more than a century it has carried roughly 11,000 vehicles daily, its roughly 20-foot width narrow enough for just a single lane, frequently snarling traffic as drivers wait for their turn to cross. That bottleneck is now one major step closer to being fixed.

A draft environmental assessment published Monday found no significant adverse environmental impact would be caused by the replacement of the Four Mile Creek Bridge on Kilauea Avenue, just south of Haihai Street. The finding clears a critical procedural hurdle for a project that has been in the proposal stage for at least a decade.

The scope of the rebuilt crossing is considerably more ambitious than a simple swap. The widened bridge would accommodate north- and southbound through lanes, plus a left-turn lane westbound onto Haihai from Kilauea, another left-turn lane northbound from Haihai to Kilauea, bike lanes and shoulders, and raised sidewalks and buffers on both sides. A traffic signal would be installed at the Kilauea and Haihai intersection. The east side of the intersection would also be widened to accommodate the new turn lanes, and ADA-accessible curb ramps are to be installed.

The project area covers about 8.7 acres, including 3.7 acres around the bridge and 5 acres within the nearby Panaewa Farm Lots, which would serve as a staging area during construction. To make room for the expanded roadway, the county would need to acquire about 1.2 acres of adjacent land, 0.9 acres owned by the state and 0.3 acres privately owned. The pedestrian walkways will tie into Safe Routes to Schools program improvements planned for a 1.7-mile stretch of Kilauea Avenue between Ohea and Haihai streets.

Onishi, who has been one of the project's chief advocates, framed the rebuilt crossing as relief for one of Hilo's most chronic choke points. He said the expanded bridge would "relieve some of the traffic off of the main Panaewa stretch" of Highway 11, resulting in easier commutes from Puna to Hilo in the morning and from Hilo to Puna in the afternoon. "I feel for the people coming down Haihai and turning left on Kilauea. It's very crucial, because they have a hard time with the traffic coming in from Puna and going out to Puna," Onishi said.

The $18 million project is funded through a split of $12 million in state funds and $6 million from the county, a package the County Council approved in 2021. That money carries a hard deadline: the 2021 state funding allocation will expire in July 2027 if construction hasn't commenced by then. It would not be the first time the project lost its funding. The state appropriated $13 million back in 2017, but that money lapsed in 2020. Then-state Rep. Richard Onishi said at the time that the lapse happened because the state Department of Transportation "decided they were not going to move forward with the project."

The project is expected to be advertised for bid toward the end of 2026, with construction slated to begin in the first half of 2027. Construction is expected to take approximately two years to complete. The start of construction will depend on permitting approvals, the project design timeline, and agency consultations.

The draft EA opens a 30-day public comment period ending April 22. Comments can be emailed to FourMileCreek@haleyaldrich.com.