Skip to main content

Hawaii Route 80

By

Hawaii Route 80 is an approximately 2-mile State Highway located on the Island of O'ahu.  Hawaii Route 80 is a component of the Kamehameha Highway which begins at Hawaii Route 99 immediately north of Interstate H-2 Exit 8 in Wahiawa.  Hawaii Route 80 follows the Kamehameha Highway north through Wahiawa crossing the waters of Wahiawa Reservoir twice before terminating at Hawaii Route 99.  Pictured above is the 1932 Karsten Thot Bridge which carries Hawaii Route 80 over the Wahiawa Reservoir north of Wahiawa.

This page is part of the Gribblenation O'ahu Highways page.  All Gribblenation and Roadwaywiz media related to the highway system of O'ahu can be found at the link below:

https://www.gribblenation.org/p/gribblenation-oahu-highways-page.html


Part 1; the history of Hawaii Route 80

Prior to the Statehood the first signed highways within Hawaii Territory came into existence during World War II.   During World War II the territory of Hawaii saw an influx of military activity following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.  Numerous Military Routes and early Hawaii Routes were signed through the Hawaiian Territory to aid military personnel in navigating the islands.  Military Highways were assigned US Route style shields whereas lesser highways were assigned an early variation of what is now the Hawaii Route Spade.  The Kamehameha Highway through Wahiawa is shown assigned as part of Military Route 1.  A full version of the 1946 Army Map of O'ahu can be seen on hawaiihighways.com here.  


Circa 1955 following the conclusion of World War II the United States Bureau of Public Roads renumbered the Hawaii Route System.  The 1955 Hawaii Route Renumbering saw most of the conventions utilized by the current Hawaii State Route System established.  Primary Hawaii Routes were given two-digit numbers whereas Secondary Hawaii Routes were given three-digit numbers.  The Hawaii Routes were assigned in sequence for what Island/County they were located on coupled with what Federal Aid Program number they were tied to.  In the case of O'ahu the Island was assigned numbers in the range of 60-99.  Hawaii Route 80 was assigned to the Kamehameha Highway from Hawaii Route 99 through Wahiawa north to Hawaii Route 82 and onwards to Hawaii Route 99 via Kaukonahua Road.  

Hawaii Route 80 can be seen on the 1959 Gousha Map of Hawaii in the vicinity of Wahiawa.

It is unclear when Hawaii Route 80 was truncated but it appears to have occurred when Hawaii Route 99 was realigned over Hawaii Route 82 north of Wahiawa.  What was Hawaii Route 80 on Kaukonahua Road is shown on the 1983 USGS Map of the Wahiawa Area as Hawaii Route 801.  Hawaii Route 80 is shown with what appears to be a dual northern terminus at Hawaii Route 99 via Kamehameha Highway and Kaukonahua Road.  It is unclear when Hawaii Route 801 was decommissioned as there is no longer any reassurance shields.  According to hawaiihighways.com Hawaii Route 80 still has a dual northern terminus at Hawaii Route 99 but field signage only indicates it is via Kamehameha Highway. 


Part 2; a drive on Hawaii Route 80

Northbound Hawaii Route 80 begins on Kamehameha Highway south of Wahiawa when Hawaii Route 99 splits onto Wilikina Drive.  

Hawaii Route 80 northbound follows Kamehameha Highway over the Wahiawa Reservoir and passes through Wahiawa.  Departing Wahiawa Hawaii Route 80 northbound crosses the 1932 Karsten Thot Bridge.  The Karsten Thot Bridge 213.9-foot-long Warren Through Truss Span which was renovated during 2015. 

North of the Karsten Thot Bridge Hawaii Route 80 intersects Hawaii Route 7012 (former Hawaii Route 804) at Whitmore Avenue.  

Northbound Hawaii Route 80 intersects former its original alignment and former Hawaii Route 801 at Kaukonahua Road.  



Hawaii Route 80 northbound follows Kamehameha Highway to a terminus at Hawaii Route 99.  


Southbound Hawaii Route 80 begins on Kamehameha Highway starting from Hawaii Route 99 as the latter splits onto Kamananui Road.  


Southbound Hawaii Route 80 intersects former its original alignment and former Hawaii Route 801 at Kaukonahua Road.  At Whitmore Avenue southbound Hawaii Route 80 intersects Hawaii Route 7012. 


Southbound crosses the Karsten Thot Bridge, passes through Wahiawa on Kamehameha Highway and terminates at Hawaii Route 99 south of the Wahiawa Reservoir. 


Strangely a Hawaii Route 80 shield with "Hawaii" in the Spade crest on Kaukonahua Road when Dan Murphy drove it during early 2019.  The current Google Street View image from July 2019 shows the shield has been removed.  The specification Hawaii Route shield below is of 1971 vintage according to Jake Bear of the AAroads Shield Gallery. 



During May of 2019 Dan Murphy of the Roadwaywiz YouTube Channel and Gribblenation featured real-time drives on Hawaii Route 80.  Below Hawaii Route 80 can be viewed northbound from Hawaii Route 99.  


Below Hawaii Route 80 can be viewed southbound from Hawaii Route 99. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paper Highways: The Unbuilt New Orleans Bypass (Proposed I-410)

By
  There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population.  The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t
Post a Comment
Read more

Hernando de Soto Bridge (Memphis, TN)

By
The newest of the bridges that span the lower Mississippi River at Memphis, the Hernando de Soto Bridge was completed in 1973 and carries Interstate 40 between downtown Memphis and West Memphis, AR. The bridge’s signature M-shaped superstructure makes it an instantly recognizable landmark in the city and one of the most visually unique bridges on the Mississippi River. As early as 1953, Memphis city planners recommended the construction of a second highway bridge across the Mississippi River to connect the city with West Memphis, AR. The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge had been completed only four years earlier a couple miles downriver from downtown, however it was expected that long-term growth in the metro area would warrant the construction of an additional bridge, the fourth crossing of the Mississippi River to be built at Memphis, in the not-too-distant future. Unlike the previous three Mississippi River bridges to be built the city, the location chosen for this bridge was about two
1 comment
Read more

Memphis & Arkansas Bridge (Memphis, TN)

By
  Like the expansion of the railroads the previous century, the modernization of the country’s highway infrastructure in the early and mid 20th Century required the construction of new landmark bridges along the lower Mississippi River (and nation-wide for that matter) that would facilitate the expected growth in overall traffic demand in ensuing decades. While this new movement had been anticipated to some extent in the Memphis area with the design of the Harahan Bridge, neither it nor its neighbor the older Frisco Bridge were capable of accommodating the sharp rise in the popularity and demand of the automobile as a mode of cross-river transportation during the Great Depression. As was the case 30 years prior, the solution in the 1940s was to construct a new bridge in the same general location as its predecessors, only this time the bridge would be the first built exclusively for vehicle traffic. This bridge, the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge, was completed in 1949 and was the third
Post a Comment
Read more