Skip to main content

Hawaii County Route 132

By


Hawaii County Route 132 is a 7.8-mile highway in the Lower Puna Coast area of the Big Island.  The highway begins at Hawaii Route 130 near Pahoa and follows Pahoa-Kapoho Road east to the now destroyed junction with Hawaii County Route 137.  Hawaii County Route 132 prior the eruption of 1960 once continued east to point Cape Kumukahi.  Portions of the highway near Kapoho were covered by lava from the 2018 Lower Puna Eruption in the Kapoho area and have recently been rebuilt.  



Part 1; the history of Hawaii County Route 132

In 1955 the Hawaii Route System was expanded to the Big Island.  Hawaii Route 132 was established as running along Pahoa-Kapoho Road from Hawaii Route 13 in Pahoa east to Cape Kumukahi.  According to Oscar Voss's hawaiihighways.com the original scale of Hawaii Route 132 was 9.4 miles.  

Hawaii Route 132 can be seen on the 1959 Gousha Highway map of Hawaii.  


Hawaii Route 132 was ultimately transferred to Hawaii County following Hawaii becoming the fiftieth state on August 21, 1959.  On January 12, 1960, a series of earthquakes began in Kapoho which culminated in an eruption (out of what is now Kapoho Crater) the next day.  On January 28th, lava entered Kapoho itself and destroyed most of the town.  The eruption also destroyed Hawaii County Route 132 east of Hawaii County Route 137 towards Kumukahi Point.  

Following the 1960 eruption the segment of Hawaii County Route 132 east of Hawaii County Route 137 was abandoned.   The segment of the highway in Kapoho itself was repaired for Hawaii County at the behest of the Hawaii Department of Transportation.  

The 1965 United States Geological Survey map of Kapoho displays the rebuilt Hawaii County Route 132 terminating at Hawaii County Route 137.  Kapoho more or less is just seen as a name on the map next to Kapoho Crater.  The so-called "Green Lake" can be seen withing Kapoho Crater itself. 


During May 2018 the East Rift Zone of Kilauea began to erupt through numerous fissures near Kapoho.  On May 19th lava began covering Hawaii County Route 137 and flowing into the Pacific Ocean.  The flows turned northeast and covered Hawaii County Route 132 on May 29th.  The subdivisions of Kapoho Beach Lots and Vacation Land Hawaii were both destroyed by the eruptions.  The Green Lake withing Kapoho Crater was boiled away by lava during early June.  Eruption activity subsided by August 2018 after almost three months.

Hawaii County Route 132 was subsequently rebuilt to where it once terminated at Hawaii County Route 137.  The purpose of Hawaii County Route 132 being reconstructed was to provide roadway access to northbound Kalapana-Kapoho Road.  Hawaii County Route 137 now terminates near Issac Hale Park east of Pohoiki Road. 



Part 2; a drive on Hawaii County Route 132

Hawaii County Route 132 eastbound can be seen below approaching Pohoiki Road (Josh Schmid photos).  Pohoiki Road south to Hawaii County Route 137 has been mostly destroyed by lava flow.  




Hawaii County Route 132 now crosses over a lava field where Kapoho once stood (Josh Schmid photos).  Kapoho was once located on the Hawaii Consolidated Railway which connected the sugar cane community to Hilo.







Hawaii County Route 132 terminates at Kalapana-Kapoho Road.  The now destroyed portion of Hawaii County Route 137 would have begun on the right.  Hawaii County Route 132 once continued straight towards Cape Kumukahi. 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chowchilla Mountain Road to Yosemite National Park

By
Chowchilla Mountain Road of Mariposa County is one of the oldest roadways servicing Yosemite National Park.  As presently configured this fourteen-mile highway begins at California State Route 49 near Elliot Corner and terminates at the Wawona Road in Yosemite National Park.  Chowchilla Mountain Road was constructed as a franchise toll road over Battalion Pass circa 1869-1870.  The highway was built at behest of Galen Clark to connect the town of Mariposa to his property near the South Fork Merced River at what is now Wawona.   In late 1874 the highway along with Clark’s Station would be purchased by the Washburn Brothers.  The Washburn Brothers would continue to toll Chowchilla Mountain Road as part of their Yosemite Stage Route lines.  The highway would ultimately become a Mariposa County public highway in 1917.  Mariposa would later be more directly linked with Yosemite Valley in 1926 following the completion of the Yosemite All-Year Highwa...
2 comments
Read more

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

By
In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Angus L. Macdonald Bridge

By
At 1.3 kilometers (or about 0.84 miles) in length, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge is one of two bridges crossing over the Halifax Harbour between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, with the other bridge being the A. Murray Mackay Bridge . Opened in 1955 and named after former Nova Scotia Premier and Canadian Minister of Defense for Naval Services Angus L. Macdonald, the Macdonald Bridge was the first bridge that crossed Halifax Harbour that was opened to traffic. The Macdonald Bridge was also the subject of the Big Lift, which was only the second time in history that the span of a suspension bridge were replaced while the bridge was open to traffic. Planning began in 2010 for the Big Lift, while construction took place between 2015 and 2017. Similar work occurred on the Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia before the project took place on the Macdonald Bridge. At this time, much of the bridge infrastructure is new, leaving only the towers, main cables and...
1 comment
Read more