Hawaii County has a plan to restore access to Mokuola, which is good news for residents cut off from the island for the past year.

• Work on a temporary walking bridge could start in January and be done by next summer.
• The temporary bridge is expected to cost $1.5 to $2 million; a full rebuild would run about $20 million.
• Permits took months, which is why nothing has happened since the collapse.
• The bridge came down in November 2025 when a county worker drove a mini excavator across it, though age and wear were likely the real cause — a report years earlier had already flagged structural problems.
• As a walking-only bridge, it never made the county's top 20 repair list.

Outlook: The county has a promise of 80% federal funding and is pushing for full coverage, with the permanent replacement planned to be wider and better lit.