Two years ago, the state Department of Transportation announced with fanfare that commuters headed westbound on the H-1 freeway would have a dedicated Zipper Lane during the afternoon rush hour. The contraflow lane would run about 7.2 miles between Pearl Harbor and Waikele and was slated to be finished in late 2013.

DOT officials were unequivocal about the advantages.

"The time saved for commuters translates directly into an improved quality of life, as motorists can get home to their families faster and save money on gas," then-DOT Director Glenn Okimoto said in a press release issued the day of the groundbreaking, June 26, 2012. "Every vehicle that uses the PM contraflow will be removed from the normal traffic lanes, reducing congestion and travel times overall."

It hasn’t turned out that way at all. In fact, just months into the "design and build" process, DOT officials began to realize that a Zipper Lane would not improve traffic enough to justify the total cost of the project, much less an ongoing expenditure of $3 million a year to operate and maintain the machinery. Such a contraflow lane, it was predicted once work was underway, might even have made the Ewa-bound traffic worse in some stretches of the freeway, which is already among the most congested on Oahu.

By the time the PM Zipper Lane construction was suspended last year, the state had spent about $5 million toward this touted nonsolution, which involves heavy barrier-transfer vehicles moving concrete lane dividers along a steel connector to reallocate or "contraflow" traffic lanes so that more cars flow in the busier direction.

Even now, after the state has moved on to a different approach, the Zipper concept has yet to be officially scrapped because the Federal Highway Administration, which is funding 80 percent of the estimated $82.1 million cost of the overall project, has not signed off on the state’s new plan; final approvals are expected within weeks.

Ewa-bound drivers have endured disruptions related to this work for more than a year. The Department of Transportation owes Oahu motorists and taxpayers much more information about the evolution of the PM Contraflow Project to ensure that similar avoidable and costly delays don’t occur in the future. DOT must disclose exactly how much was spent pursuing the Zipper Lane, and how much of that money was spent after that option’s flaws were obvious.

The "design and build" process rightly instills some flexibility into construction, allowing the contractor and the state to adapt to better solutions as work proceeds. But a plan that evolves so substantially from the original vision highlights the need for greater due diligence on the part of the state.

The DOT should have gathered detailed traffic data about the freeway corridor before it awarded the contract. Instead, that necessary preliminary research was left to the winning bidder, resulting in the belated realization that the Zipper Lane would not pay off, for motorists or taxpayers.

Road crews have moved ahead with the Zipperless option, which includes plans to widen the H-1 westbound in two locations, re-stripe westbound lanes from the Aiea pedestrian pass to the Pearl City offramp and create a shoulder lane that is to be used only in the afternoon. Crews are installing 61 new girders to support the new stretches of lane, as well as new bridge railings and streetlights.

It will be at least January 2015 before the bulk of the work is done, more than a year beyond the original projection. That better quality of life for Leeward Oahu commuters coping with some of the worst traffic in the United States remains frustratingly down the road.