Highways

HONOLULU – The Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) received a Preservation Commendation last Friday night for its Hawaii State Historic Bridge Inventory & Evaluation from the Historic Hawaii Foundation’s 2014 Preservation Honor Award. The effort evaluated all state and county bridges statewide built before 1968 and assessed their preservation values. The information will be used to assist and provide guidance in HDOT’s future project development. A total of 708 bridges were identified and evaluated for eligibility into the Hawaii State Register of Historic Places or the National Register of Historic Places.

Community input into the Bridge Inventory was vital to the process. Citizens active in preservation efforts were encouraged to join Bridge Committees in each county that included representatives from county governments, the State Historic Preservation Division and the Historic Hawaii Foundation. Citizens were able to contribute anecdotal information, such as stories about historical or cultural events or other items detailing the bridges’ significance to their communities, that provided information beyond that possible by visual and architectural assessments alone. Additional outreach efforts incorporated social media with the creation of a Facebook site dedicated to the Inventory.

The Inventory will be utilized to facilitate future consultations between HDOT and local communities for various construction projects and can be viewed at its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hawaii-Statewide-Bridges/289101791209513. It should be noted that this bridge inventory did not identify and evaluate archaeological or cultural issues and does not propose treatment for each bridge. The Inventory does not replace the Section 106 process required by the National Historic Preservation Act.