Ihi'ihilauakea Bridge

Ihi’ihilauakea Bridge is located along Kalanianaole Highway on the East side of O’ahu.  It is a reinforced concrete open spandrel arch bridge, built in 1931, and while not currently listed on the Historic Bridge Inventory, the bridge was deemed eligible for listing.  Therefore, standards for historic preservation were considered during the design.  As prime consultant and structural engineer, NOEI performed field investigations and provided construction documents and specifications for the emergency repair of this bridge.

The design included repairs to widespread concrete spall damages on the deck slab soffit, concrete beams, columns, and arch-shaped concrete girders.  After the spalls were repaired, the concrete members were wrapped with a high-strength fabric material (fiberwrap) to strengthen and preserve the bridge.  The finished surface over the fiberwrap material was then painted to match the concrete color of the existing bridge.

This project just received the 2014 Best Small Project Award from the ASCE Hawaii Section OCEA (Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement) and 2015 Engineering Excellence Honor award from ACEC.