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State leaders are highlighting their latest efforts to help ease the island’s back-to-school traffic, which this year is expected to bring an estimated 53,000 students onto the roadways.
On Oahu’s Windward side, commuters on Kahekili Highway now have an additional Kahuku-bound lane between Haiku Road and West Hui Iwa Street following a recent repaving project there, according to a Department of Transportation release.
By October, commuters from the westbound Moanalua Freeway’s Halawa offramp to the H-1 freeway’s Aiea pedestrian overpass can expect smoother pavement and a new westbound lane running through the area created via restriping, the release stated.
The upgrades are billed as part of the DOT’s annual “Beat the School Jam” effort to relieve school-related traffic congestion. On Monday, Gov. David Ige joined Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and Oahu transportation officials to tout this year’s initiatives.
The DOT release also noted $10 million in left-turn lanes along Farrington Highway’s Leeward corridor, where residents continue to grapple with severe traffic delays, as well as other improvements there such as thermal camera sensors to detect waiting vehicles at intersections. Those are slated to be done by the end of the year, according to the release.
DOT officials also say work to repave and better light Pali Highway will run from this fall through 2019. They’ll also repave Kalihi Street, among other projects in the works.
The agency will further suspend construction-related road closures on major state highways from Aug. 21 to 25 from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. to help ease into the new school year, the release stated.
Under Ige, the DOT will continue a strategy of spending most of its highway dollars on preserving existing roadways.
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