Skip to main content

Kauai County Route 581

By

Kauai County Route 581 is an approximately 5-mile-long highway located in the Kapaa area.  Kauai County Route 581 begins at Hawaii Route 580 and terminates in downtown Kapaa at Hawaii Route 56 (Kuhio Highway).  This county route utilizes Kamalu Road, Olohena Road and Kukui Street.  

The Hawaii Route 581 corridor was one of the original 1955-era Hawaii Routes added to Kauai.  Originally the highway appears to have used the Puuopae Bridge and Opaekaa Stream Bridge prior to being realigned onto Kamalu Road in the early 1960s.  Hawaii Route 581 would become Kauai County 581 when the Hawaii Route System and County Route Systems were split in 1968. 


This page is part of the Gribblenation Hawaii Roads series.  A compellation of all Hawaii-related media from both Gribblenation and RoadwayWiz can be found by clicking here. 




Part 1; the history of Kauai County Route 581

The current alignment of Kauai County Route 581 is approximately 5 miles long between Hawaii Route 580 in Wailua Homesteads and Hawaii Route 56 in Kapaa.  Kauai County Route 581 follows Kamalu Road for 1.6 miles, Olohena Road for 3.3 miles and Kukui Street for 0.1 miles.  

Olohena Road was part of the original haul road to the site of the Wailua Reservoir.  This haul road snaked to the Wailua Reservoir site via what is now Olohena Road, Puuopae Road, Opeakaa Road and Kuamoo Road.  This corridor included construction of the Puuopae Bridge in 1915 and Opeakaa Stream Bridge in 1919.  The Wailua Reservoir would be completed in 1920 and would be the locale of a Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station. 

The 1915-era Puuopae Bridge is a 48-foot single lane span over Kalama Stream.  This structure was rehabilitated in 1958 and was ultimately added to the National Register of Historical Places on May 25, 2005.  This bridge can be seen as it was circa 2009 in a public domain photo taken by Joel Bradshaw.  


The 1919-era Opaekaa Stream Bridge can be seen below as it was in November 2009 in a Craig Philpott photo.  Originally traffic would descend eastward from the Wailua Reservoir following much of modern Kauai County Route 581 towards Kapaa via the Puuopae Bridge (constructed in 1915) and Olohena Road.  


The Opaekaa Stream Bridge had been fabricated by a company called Motherwell in Scottland circa 1890.  It isn't fully clear if the span was used elsewhere prior to being installed at Opaekaa Stream.  The structure was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1983.  

Ultimately the Opaekaa Stream Bridge received a retrofit in 2020 which was conducted by KAI Hawaii Incorporated.  The original steel truss members were repaired and incorporated into a modernized structure.  



In 1955 the Hawaii Route System was expanded to Kauai.  Hawaii Route 581 branching northeast from Hawaii Route 58 (now Hawaii Route 580) appears to have initially followed Opaekaa Road and Puuopae Road towards Olohena Road.  This initial alignment of Hawaii Route 581 appears on the 1959 Gousha Highway map of Hawaii.  Hawaii would become the 50th State on August 21, 1959.


Hawaii Route 581 appears shifted to a new starting point branching from Hawaii Route 58 on the 1963 United States Geological Survey map of Kapaa.  Hawaii Route 581 is displayed as beginning on Kamalu Road and following it northeast towards Olohena Road.  



In 1968 the Hawaii Route System was split from the County Route System.  Hawaii Route 581 was not retained by the state and was spun off as Kauai County Route 581.  

In 1975 Kauai County would install a then new bridge at Opaekaa Stream along Kamalu Road.  In 2005 the county would install a new bridge on Olohena Road at Olohena Ditch #1.  In recent years a small culvert carrying Kamalu Road over Kalama Stream was replaced with a Acrow Bridge Company prefabricated span.  



Part 2; a drive on Kauai County Route 581

Kauai County Route 581 begins a northeasterly journey towards Kapaa as Hawaii Route 580 meets Kamalu Road.  



Kauai County Route 581 follows Kamalu Road over the Kamala Stream prefabricated bridge and makes a right-hand turn at Olohena Road.  








Kauai County Route 581 continues eastward into Kapaa and crosses over Hawaii Route 5600 (Kapaa Bypass) via a roundabout.  










Kauai County Route 581 transitions onto Kukui Street in downtown Kapaa and terminates at Hawaii Route 56 (Kuhio Highway).  Kapaa was established in 1877 when 13,400 acres of land were leased to the Makee Sugar Planation.  The venture was initially unsuccessful since the operators had little to no experience with processing sugar.  Operations turned around and Kapaa began to boom into a modern plotted town site.  Ultimately the Makee Sugar Plantation was sold to the much larger Lihue Sugar Plantation in 1916. 





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Petroleum Club Road (former California State Route 33 and US Route 399 past the Lakeview Gusher)

By
Petroleum Club Road is an approximately 5.3-mile rural highway located in the Sunset Oil Field of western Kern County.  This corridor was constructed as a frontage road of the Sunset Railroad and would be the site of the Lakeview Gusher in 1910.  Petroleum Club Road was the original alignment of California State Route 33 and US Route 399 between 1934-1938.  In 1938 the West Side Highway was constructed west of Lakeview Gusher and still serves as the current alignment of California State Route 33.   Part 1; the history of Petroleum Club Road Petroleum Club Road is the original highway which linked the oil communities of Maricopa and Taft.  Both cities were developed around the early boom of the Sunset Oil Field.  The early Sunset Oil Field can be seen centered along Cienega Canyon Road southwest of Buena Vista Lake in Township 11 North, Range 23 West on the 1898 Kern County Surveyors map .  In 1901 Post Office Service would be established at the Su...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hawaii Route 50

By
Hawaii Route 50 is the longest Sign Route on the island of Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The entirety of Hawaii Route 50 is overlaid atop Kaumualii Highway from Lihue west to the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands. Hawaii Route 50 is one of the original 1955-era State Highway designations on Kauai.  Much of the Kaumualii Highway corridor was constructed during the sugar plantation boom of the late Hawaiian Kingdom.  The first tee beam bridge in Hawaii would be constructed along the Kaumualii Highway in 1911 at the Hanapepe.  Much of this highway would be modernized to two-lane standards through the 1930s and 1940s. This page is part of the Gribblenation Hawaii Roads series.  A compellation of all Hawaii-related media from both Gribblenation and RoadwayWiz can be found by clicking  here .  Part 1; the history of Hawaii Route 50 and Kaumualii Highway Hawaii Route 50 is the longest highway on Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The highway begins at Rice Str...
Post a Comment
Read more

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

By
The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...
3 comments
Read more