Admiral Clarey Bridge, also known as the Ford Island Bridge, is a road bridge that connects

Ford Island Ford Island ( haw, Poka Ailana) is an islet in the center of Pearl Harbor, Oahu, in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It has been known as Rabbit Island, Marín's Island, and Little Goats Island, and its native Hawaiian name is ''Mokuumeume''. The isl ...

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

to the mainland of

Oahu Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...

, the third-largest island of

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. A section of it is supported by pontoons, and can be moved to allow vessels to pass through. This floating moveable span is the largest in the world. The bridge is used by military families housed on Ford Island and by tour buses serving the island's historic sites. The bridge replaced an hourly

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

service operated by the U.S. Navy. Its namesake,

Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

Bernard A. Clarey Bernard Ambrose Clarey (May 4, 1912 – June 15, 1996), nicknamed "Chick", was an admiral of the United States Navy. A submarine commander during World War II, he served during the late 1960s as Vice Chief of Naval Operations and in the earl ...

, was one of the Navy's most decorated officers.

History

Waa Hele Honoa (YFB-83) and Moko Holo Hele (YFB-87)

Before the bridge was built, access to Ford Island was provided by

ferryboats A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

. Two diesel-powered ferries served the island, ''Waa Hele Honoa'' (YFB-83) and ''Moko Holo Hele'' (YFB-87). The ''Waa Hele Honoa'', translated to "Canoe go to land", was purchased in 1959 for $274,000. Later, the ferry was pressed into service by the Navy on 3 March 1961. It is the older and larger of the two ferries at 181 feet long. It could carry 750 people and 33 vehicles. The other, ''Moko Holo Hele'', translated to "boat go back and forth", was purchased for $1.1 million on 25 May 1970. It is 162 feet long, but can hold 750 people and 42 vehicles. Both ferries were operated by U.S. Navy personnel. Access to the island was restricted to U.S. military personnel, their dependents, and invited guests. In addition to the two car ferries there were several smaller "foot ferries" that allowed pedestrians to transit between Ford Island and several alternate landings around Pearl Harbor.

Funding

Proposals to connect the island had been around since 1967. A 1967 study suggested that there were only three ways to connect the island: a bridge, a tunnel, or a rubble-filled causeway. The 1976 military construction budget included a proposal for a $25 million causeway but it was removed from the budget for being too expensive. Other proposals such as a steel bridge were considered but were never constructed because of the cost. Not until Sen. Inouye's special legislation, , to authorize the Navy to sell land to fund the bridge did a real proposal come to fruition. The bridge was primarily funded through the "Manana deal," where the Navy sold in Pearl City, called the Manana storage site, to the City and County of Honolulu for development for $94,000,000. The Navy was also able to lease and sell of Ford Island as part of Sen. Inouye's renovation project to use private funds to redevelop the island.

Rebirth of Ford Island

Initially termed "the bridge to nowhere", the Admiral Clarey bridge was instrumental in Senator

Daniel Inouye Daniel Ken Inouye ( ; September 7, 1924 – December 17, 2012) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Hawaii from 1963 until his death in 2012. Beginning in 1959, he was the first U.S. representative f ...

's "rebirth" of Ford Island and enabled over $500,000,000 in development on the island. It connected 45 families and 3,000 civilian workers to

Kamehameha Highway Kamehameha Highway is one of the main highways serving suburban and rural O‘ahu in the U.S. state of Hawai‘i. Informally known as Kam Highway, it begins at Nimitz Highway near Pearl Harbor and Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, serves the is ...

. The completion of the bridge also enabled the Navy to further develop the island to include the $331,000,000 NOAA's Senator Daniel Inouye Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. In addition, visitor access to the island with the bridge enabled the construction of the $50,000,000

Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum (formerly the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor) is a non-profit founded in 1999 to develop an aviation museum in Hawaii. Part of Senator Daniel Inouye's vision for a rebirth of Ford Island, the museum hosts a var ...

. It was designed by Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc and constructed by the joint venture of Dillingham-Manson. Ground was broken on the causeway bridge on 10 January 1996 and was completed in 1998 and dedicated on 15 April of that year. The entire project cost $78,000,000 to complete. The design of the bridge earned the 1999

American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

Outstanding Projects and leaders award of merit and the

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...

2000 Honor Award for design excellence. The project was completed ahead of time and under budget. Future plans for the bridge include a plan by the city of

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

to build a second bridge from Ford Island to 'Ewa Beach to reduce the stress on existing highways caused by high traffic and congestion. Currently,

Interstate H-1 Interstate H-1 (abbreviated H-1) is the longest and busiest Interstate Highway in the US state of Hawaii. The highway is located on the island of O‘ahu. Despite the number, this is an east–west highway; the 'H'-series (for Hawaii) numbering r ...

provides the only access from the west side of the island to Honolulu. The plan would include a public use or toll roadway that would come near the Navy's West Loch Naval Magazine, which stores ammunition for the military; a concern for the Navy. The Navy also expressed concerns about the infrastructure of Pearl Harbor and Ford Island's historical significance being affected by the project.

Design

The bridge has a total length of , including a pontoon section that can be retracted under the fixed bridge to allow the largest

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

s and

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

s to pass. The bridge consists of a wide channel as well as a wide high opening for smaller craft under an elevated span. The entry control point at the east end of the bridge provides room for two traffic lanes of entry, a single exit lane, and a guard tower with a turnaround.

Design–build

The project was developed using a design–build, operate and maintain (DBOM) approach. The Navy did an environmental impact study, studied various bridge alternatives, and settled on a combination fixed and floating bridge. The Navy then awarded contracts of $350,000 to three major contractors to create candidate designs for the bridge. On 19 August 1994, the Navy awarded a design-build contract to Dillingham-Manson, JV.

Construction

Some 350 to 400 24-inch prestressed concrete

piles Hemorrhoids (or haemorrhoids), also known as piles, are vascular structures in the anal canal. In their normal state, they are cushions that help with stool control. They become a disease when swollen or inflamed; the unqualified term ''hemo ...

were built on site to support the bridge. The piles were driven at angles into the seabed. In 2001, three years after construction had completed, cracks were discovered in four pillars. Under a maintenance contract, the cracks were repaired with concrete sleeves at no cost to the Navy. Most of the pre-cast girders and deck panels were constructed in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

, and shipped by barge. The three concrete pontoons for the floating moveable span were also constructed in Tacoma by Concrete Technology Corporation in a graving dock and floated to Ford Island by barge in three shipments. They are long, wide, and tall, and are buoyed by 21 water-tight air-filled cells with leak detectors. The three sections were assembled at the site using large steel bolts. Pontoon bridges, which rest on water, are designed to withstand stresses from nature as well as traffic. A similar bridge in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, the

Hood Canal bridge The Hood Canal Bridge (officially William A. Bugge Bridge) is a floating bridge in the northwest United States, located in western Washington. It carries State Route 104 across Hood Canal of Puget Sound and connects the Olympic and Kitsap P ...

, sank in 1979 after the pontoons flooded amid winds. Experience from the replacement for that bridge helped engineers better design the Admiral Clarey bridge's pontoons for wave load resistance. The Admiral Clarey bridge is designed to withstand winds as high as and waves as high as .

Moveable span

The bridge was designed with a movable floating pontoon. Steel transition spans connect the two ends of the fixed bridge to the pontoon. Two hydraulic rams, located on either side of the transition spans, lift the transition spans off the pontoon allowing the pontoon to retract under the fixed bridge. The transition spans accommodate of tide movement and of pontoon movement. In addition, the spans sit on a central pivot that assists with the movement caused by waves. In the event that the transition spans are unable to bear the stress of movement of the pontoon, specifically in the case of seismic activity, the bridge has a breakaway feature that can be easily repaired. The floating portion is then retracted under the O'ahu side of the fixed bridge at a rate of 14 inches per second to create a 650 ft navigation channel. The entire process takes 25 minutes to complete. Retraction of the movable span is accomplished by two hydraulic winches located on the control pier on the southeast side of the bridge. Two-inch steel cables are used to connect each winch to the pontoon: one is connected to the far and the other to the near end of the pontoon. The opening sequence consists of activating the warning lights and bells, lowering the warning gates and barriers, lifting the transition spans on both sides, and operating the winches. During the opening, the winch connected to the west end pulls while the winch on the east end pays out. As the span nears fully open, the winch speeds are slowed to allow the pontoon to stop without snapping a cable. This entire operation is operated from a control room on the east section of the bridge at the highest point and monitored from wireless cameras. 36 post-tensioned straddle bents span 60-ft under the elevated span to form a pocket for the movable span to rest while the bridge is open.

Public reception

Military and civilian runners crossing the Admiral Clarey Bridge during the 2006 Ford Island 10k Bridge Run at Pearl Harbor

Although access to the bridge is limited to those who hold a US military ID card, several events are hosted annually that are open to the public. The bridge is the location of the annual Ford Island 10K Bridge run which has been one of the largest runs in O'ahu. Starting in 2012, the Tripler Fisher House started its "Boots on the Bridge" event which honors fallen military members by placing boots with photos across Ford Island and the Admiral Clarey Bridge. More than 6,000 boots line the route to remember each fallen soldier since the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City. In 2009, the

American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. Established in 1913, the society is organized into six geographical regions of both medical and lay volunteers operating in more than ...

raised over $150,000 from 3,000 participating for breast cancer research through the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk over the bridge and in 2011 had over 8,000 participants and raised over $200,000.

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

officials criticized the construction of the Admiral Clarey bridge fearing that by connecting road traffic to the mainland, the increased flow of island visitors would raise the level of theft of historical artifacts from the USS ''Arizona'' and other memorials on or around Ford Island. The

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

, which has a facility on Ford Island, criticized the US Navy's

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

and

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

disaster plans which calls for closing the bridge to traffic and opening the channel to allow all ships to vacate the harbor. The NOAA's concerns were that with the bridge outage, the tsunami warning center would not be able to operate effectively at a time when its need was greatest. The Navy's plan calls for the use of the tour boats to act as ferries whenever the bridge would be unavailable for long periods of time and offered them as a solution to the NOAA's concerns. However, an organization called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) believed that the boats would be unable to provide for a speedy evacuation in a tsunami. In the event of a storm, PEER also noted that if the Navy was so concerned that they would evacuate their largest ships, that the small ferries would be unable to operate in those storm conditions. If the ferries were unable to operate, NOAA employees could not rotate shifts with fresh staff to relieve stranded employees sheltering in place. The NOAA assured its employees that a tsunami affecting Ford Island was unlikely despite that O'ahu is an area of high tsunami danger.

Namesake

The Admiral Clarey bridge was named after

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. Admiral Clarey served as Commander

U.S. Second Fleet The United States Second Fleet is a numbered fleet in the United States Navy responsible for the East Coast and North Atlantic Ocean. The Fleet was established following World War II. In September 2011, Second Fleet was deactivated in view of ...

(COMSECONDFLT) and later was Commander U.S. Pacific Fleet. He was awarded three Navy Crosses for valor. Admiral Clarey was a survivor of the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

while he was the executive officer of the submarine USS ''Dolphin'' (SS-169). After his service in the Navy, Clarey served as vice president for the

Bank of Hawaii The Bank of Hawaii Corporation ( haw, Panakō o Hawaii; abbreviated BOH) is a regional commercial bank headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is Hawaii's second oldest bank and its largest locally owned bank in that the majority of the voting sto ...

. He died at

Tripler Army Medical Center Tripler Army Medical Center (TAMC) is a major United States Department of Defense medical facility administered by the United States Army in the state of Hawaii. It is the tertiary care hospital in the Pacific Rim, serving local active and retire ...

on 15 June 1996.

Memorials

The submarine lies just south of the sentry tower. Visible from the Admiral Clarey bridge, also to the south but on the Ford Island side, are the USS ''Arizona'' Memorial and . While ferry boats still provide access to the USS ''Arizona'' memorial, the bridge is the only access to the ''Missouri'' tour, the USS ''Oklahoma'' memorial, the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor, and for the public via

Roberts Hawaii Roberts Hawaii Tours and Transportation is a tour bus operator in the state of Hawaii founded in 1941 by Robert Iwamoto Sr. as a one-man taxi company in Hanapepe, Kauai. It has operations on 4 of Hawaii's major Islands: Kauai, Oahu, Maui, a ...

tour bus A tour bus service is an escorted tour (sometimes a package holiday) or bus service that takes visitors sightseeing, with routes around tourist attractions. Information Double-decker buses and open top buses are commonly used, for providin ...

. The Navy Facilities Engineering Command required that the bridge be low-profile to prevent any visual degradation to the USS ''Arizona'' memorial and to maintain Ford Island's historical and cultural value.

References

External links

* {{Ford Island Bridges completed in 1998 Road bridges in Hawaii Pontoon bridges in the United States Buildings and structures in Honolulu County, Hawaii Transportation in Honolulu County, Hawaii 1998 establishments in Hawaii Concrete bridges in the United States Girder bridges in the United States