Route 560, or Kaua'i Belt Road-North Shore section, is a scenic road on the northern shore of the island of Kauai in Hawaii. The entire belt road is signed as the Kuhio Highway and Hawaii Route 56 was once signed on this route before it was downgraded to become Hawaii Route 560 in the late 1960s. The Kuhio Highway is named after Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana'ole, the second non-voting Congressional Delegate from territorial Hawaii.
Route description
Kuhio Highway ends its Route 56 designation in Princeville. The road drops in elevation heading towards the Hanalei River with lookout points giving views of the river valley and the northwestern shore of Kauai. It then goes through the only major town on this route Hanalei, and past the Hanalei Bay. It follows a foot trail used by ancient Hawaiians. An early record is given in the 1849 diary of William DeWitt Alexander, who lived at the Waioli mission which still can be seen along the road. William Tufts Brigham recorded boats used to cross the rivers in 1865. The Hanalei Pier is just north of the road on the bay. At one time the valley was home to rice fields, and the Haraguchi Rice Mill is one of several built along the river. The road is narrow at times and features eleven one-lane bridges with the first five constructed in 1912. County engineers J. H. Moragne and R. L. Garlinghouse supervised building the bridges and paving through the 20th century. Many of these bridges have restricted weight limits and some of them are wooden. Traffic must yield at these bridges and it is custom to allow the greater traffic to cross first or after five to seven cars have passed your side of the road to allow to the other side to pass. The road becomes narrower with each passing mile as the Nā Pali Coast begins to inch closer towards the coast. The road dead ends at Haena State Park.
History
There were plans to extend the road toRoute 550 allowing one to circumnavigate the entire island in the 1960s; however, those plans were dropped due to environmental concerns and lack of traffic demand. The Hawaii Department of Transportation was planning to replace these bridges with two-lane bridges, but the plan was later abandoned in 1987. The area is popular for films, although they can cause traffic congestion since there are no alternate routes. Instead, a massive renovation project began for the Hanalei River bridge, promoted by a community preservation group with cooperation of the Hawaii Department of Transportation. A Pratt truss was built as a replica of the original 1912 one-lane structure. The new bridge was officially dedicated in November 2003. A 1960s structure under the roadway supports the heavier weight of modern traffic. Route 560 was added February 11, 2004 to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Hawaii as site 03001048.
