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 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.
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