QUESTION: For several weeks no work has been accomplished on the Queen’s Medical Center/state Department of Transportation project for a new offramp at Kinau Street. Traffic is a congested mess, especially in the afternoon. Meantime, barriers are left set up, along with idle equipment. Would you please find out the timetable when this work will be restarted and completed?

ANSWER: Work was postponed on Feb. 14 because of technical problems with new fiber-optic cables that are to be installed under the offramp lanes, according to the Transportation Department.

The problem is expected to be resolved and work resumed in mid- to late March. The entire project is expected to be completed in early May.

Both lanes of the offramp are open, but one eastbound merge lane on Kinau Street is closed for construction of the future westbound right-turn lane toward Lusitana Street, a department spokesman said.

Since Feb. 1 a new concrete traffic island, curbing, drainage lines and gutters have been constructed in preparation for the new turn lane.

The Transportation Department spokesman said the traffic barriers need to remain in place until the underground electrical work and retaining wall construction are completed, to separate excavated areas from traffic.

Removing them now would cause extra lane closures and increase the project cost, he said.

All this work for a new right-turn lane on the Kinau Street offramp to access Lusitana Street is to provide a shorter ambulance route to the Queen’s Medical Center and reduce traffic near the Ward Avenue intersection.

You can keep abreast of the $8.8 million project at www.queensmedicalcenter.net/kinau-off-ramp-project or by calling a hot line at 585-5048. The hot-line number is posted on an electronic board located at the top of the offramp.

QUESTION: Regarding cruise ship days mentioned in the column about tours of the Arizona Memorial ("Kokua Line," March 3): Is there a way to find out ahead of time when the cruise ship days are?

ANSWER: The state Department of Transportation has a schedule of ship arrivals and departures for Honolulu Harbor online at hawaii.gov/dot/harbors/file-links/passenger-cruise-schedules/oahucruise2011.pdf.

Or you can call 537-9260 to find out the day’s schedule.

AUWE

To two women with no aloha spirit. I had called the Internal Revenue Service to get income tax forms mailed to me. I was told they would come in about 10 days. After 19 days and no forms in the mail, I decided I had no choice but to go to the IRS office in the Prince Kuhio Federal Building. I drove downtown, with trepidation since I am handicapped, knowing parking would be difficult to find. I drove around the block of the federal building three times and finally found a parking space in front of the state tax office on Punchbowl Street. I prepared to back into the stall when a dark-colored Neon with the two women in it quickly pulled into the stall, front first. I gestured to them and shouted, but they ignored me. I drove farther down Punchbowl, where two spaces had opened up in front of the federal building. I thanked God for my fortune. The two women obviously have abandoned the aloha spirit and adopted the "me first" attitude. I hope they got a parking ticket. — No Name

Write to "Kokua Line" at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or e-mail kokualine@staradvertiser.com.