Skip to main content

Hawaii Route 95

By

Hawaii Route 95 is an unsigned State Highway on the Island of O'ahu.  Hawaii Route 95 begins at Interstate H-1/Queen Liliuokalani Freeway Exit 1 near Makalio.  From Interstate H-1 the alignment Hawaii Route 95 follows Kalaeloa Boulevard 1.5 miles south and Makakole Street westward towards Barbers Point Harbor.  

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 Hawaii Route 95

During October 1795 British Sea Captain Henry Barber was leading a trading voyage to China on the ship known as the Arthur.  After resupplying in Waikiki, the Arthur set sail westward for Kaua'i.  While rounding O'ahu the Arthur wrecked on a reef which led to the death of six of the crewmembers.  The remaining fifteen crew of the Arthur made it ashore at what came to be known as Barbers Point.  Barbers Point is known as Kalaeloa in Hawaiian and can be seen on the 1899 J.T. Taylor Map of O'ahu.

In 1888 a lighthouse was built at Barbers Point as a navigational aid.  The original Barbers Point Lighthouse was replaced by the current structure in 1933.  The second Barbers Point Lighthouse was automated in 1964 and is accessible from Barbers Point Beach Park. 

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.  A 1946 Army Map of the Island of O'ahu shows Hawaii Route 215 (following Camp Road) and Hawaii Route 214 over the general corridor of modern Hawaii Route 95 within the ranges of Naval Air Station Barbers Point.  Naval Air Station Barbers Point had been opened by the United States Navy during 1943.  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.  World War II era Hawaii Route 215 and Hawaii Route 214 were not given new 1955 era designations.  Barbers Point can be seen on the 1959 Gousha Map of Hawaii being accessible only via a military road from Naval Air Station Barbers Point.  


Conceptually Hawaii Route 95 was first proposed as a Federal Aid Primary Program in downtown Honolulu which can be seen in the Interstate H-4 proposal document titled; Proposed Route H-4.  The original Hawaii Route 95 proposal would have followed the general corridor of South Street north from proposed Interstate H-4 to Interstate H-1/Luanlilo Freeway.  


The Barbers Point Deep Draft Habor was completed by the United State Army Corps of Engineers during 1985 at a cost of $59,000,000 dollars.  Naval Air Station Barbers Point was closed during 1999 as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Acts of the 1990s.  Barbers Point Harbor was subsequently turned over to the State of Hawaii.  The transfer of Barbers Point Harbor saw it converted to commercial usage via which led to the emergence of the current Hawaii Route 95.  Hawaii Route 95 (Hawaii Route 93 is shown in error on Malakole Street) can be seen on the 2013 USGS Map of Barbers Point.




Part 2; a drive on Hawaii Route 95

Below Hawaii Route 95 can be seen headed eastbound via Kalaeloa Boulevard from Malakole Street to Interstate H-1/Queen Liliuokalani Freeway.




During May of 2019 Dan Murphy of the Roadwaywiz Channel and Gribblenation featured real-time drives on Hawaii Route 95.  Below Hawaii Route 95 can be viewed westbound. 


Below Hawaii Route 95 can be viewed eastbound.


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