State transportation leaders still can’t say for sure that their proposed Ewa-bound Zipper Lane is officially dead, but they are moving ahead anyway with H-1 freeway improvements in Central Oahu that no longer include such a contra-flowed traffic lane.
The Department of Transportation announced plans in 2012 for a Zipper Lane to help ease traffic during the afternoon commute and subsequently spent about $5 million on the barriers and crossover sections they would need for the Zipper before suspending work on it last year.
Last year, DOT officials said they aimed to determine by early 2014 whether they would scrap the planned 7.2-mile Zipper Lane between Pearl Harbor and Waikele, as part of the agency’s $82 million "PM Contraflow" project to help ease H-1 traffic congestion.
However, DOT officials can’t officially declare the Zipper Lane canceled yet because their federal counterparts still haven’t signed off on the new, Zipper-less concept for that project.
"We’re still working on finalizing the details and getting Federal Highway (Administration)’s approval," Jadine Urasaki, DOT deputy director for capital improvements, said Tuesday. "We’re still going through that back-and-forth with them."
Nonetheless, road crews are moving forward with DOT plans to widen the H-1 westbound in two locations, re-stripe westbound lanes from the Aiea pedestrian overpass to the Pearl City offramp, and provide a shoulder lane that would be used only during the afternoon commute. The work involves installing 61 new girders to support the new stretches of lane, as well as new bridge railings and streetlights, according to the DOT.
DOT officials privately reconsidered the Zipper Lane — and whether it was worth the $3 million a year it would cost to maintain — after they awarded a contract to Hawaiian Dredging to complete the PM Contraflow project, and started to get detailed traffic data from the firm on that freeway corridor, they say.
Doug Hecox, a Federal Highways Administration spokesman, called the state agency’s proposed changes to the PM Contraflow project "substantial." Federal transportation officials are still waiting on more information from the state DOT before they can move forward with final approvals, he said.
"We’re making progress but we don’t have enough information" and expect it to arrive within weeks, he said Friday.
For more than a year, thousands of Ewa-bound drivers on Oahu have endured delays and lane closures on H-1 from Halawa to Waikele as road crews work on the PM Contraflow project, one of two major road projects taking place on the H-1.
Crews finished repairs to the road surface earlier this year, and the bulk of the road widening and lane re-striping should be done by January, DOT officials said. For a schedule on upcoming closures, visit www.pmcontraflow.com/project-schedules.html.
