Hilo’s Four Mile Creek Bridge replacement moves forward with final environmental approval

Hilo’s long-planned Four Mile Creek Bridge replacement cleared a major hurdle when the final environmental assessment received a Finding of No Significant Impact, a step that lets the county move beyond environmental review and toward the next approvals needed for construction.

The existing span on Kilauea Avenue just south of Haihai Street was built in 1916 and rebuilt into its current form in 1964. Today, it carries about 11,000 vehicles a day through a narrow crossing that is only about 20 feet wide, leaving it barely wide enough for one lane and creating a persistent choke point between Highway 11 and Hilo’s southern outskirts.

The proposed project would do more than swap out the old bridge. County and state planners have described a replacement that would widen the crossing to about 60 feet, stretch it to about 125 feet and add sidewalks and bike lanes on both sides, along with a traffic signal at the Kilauea Avenue and Haihai Street intersection. Those changes are meant to improve traffic flow, pedestrian safety and access through a corridor that serves Waiakea, Puna commuters and nearby neighborhoods.

The project has also drawn attention because of emergency access. The fire station on Haihai Street opened in 2017, and county officials have said the tight intersection can be a problem for fire trucks. Councilwoman Sue Lee Loy has repeatedly pressed the county to keep the work moving, saying she was “bird-dogging” the project to make sure the funding did not slip away again.

The County Council approved an $18 million funding package in 2021, with $12 million coming from the state and $6 million from the county. A soil investigation was conducted in March 2023, and a public meeting followed on July 6, 2023, at the Waiākeawaena Elementary School cafeteria, where Lee Loy raised concerns about water flow studies, bike lanes and the Haihai Street connection near the fire station.

The final environmental finding does not put equipment on the ground yet. County engineers have said the bridge could stay open during construction if the replacement is built in phases, with traffic shifted onto the new span before the old bridge is demolished. Earlier planning also pointed to historic preservation discussions about echoing the original bridge’s guardrails in the new design.

The bigger question now is whether the project can clear the remaining steps fast enough to protect the state funding, which was previously said to lapse in July 2027 if construction had not started. With bid advertising once expected toward the end of 2026 and construction in the first half of 2027, the final environmental approval marks real progress, but Hilo still needs the money, the contracts and the schedule to hold.