Pali Highway work to continue for months as contraflow begins

The Pali Highway will reopen today for one-way traffic during limited commuting hours, a situation expected to last for months while state crews work to fortify the unstable slopes near the tunnels on Pali Highway.

The plan is to allow morning contraflow for town-bound commuters from 5 to 9 a.m. and afternoon contraflow for Windward- bound traffic from 3 to 7 p.m. Traffic in opposite lanes will not be permitted during those hours.

Outside these hours, the highway will be closed as crews work to stabilize the slopes in the area.

The highway has been closed since Monday, after multiple landslides brought debris onto the roadway and injured a 40-year-old woman and two girls, 9 and 2, who were traveling in a vehicle.

“I wish I had better news for everybody,” said Ed Sniffen, deputy director for highways at the state Department of Transportation.

Finding a permanent solution is likely to take months, he told reporters Wednesday at a news conference at DOT headquarters. The highway closure is necessary to ensure the safety of motorists, he said.

To enter the Honolulu-bound contraflow, motorists will cross over to the opposite side of the highway at the intersection to Saint Stephen’s Diocesan Center and will re-enter the Honolulu-bound side of the highway at the Nuuanu Pali Drive intersection adjacent to the Nuuanu Reservoir.

HDOT crews will be on hand to monitor the contraflow, Sniffen said.

“If there are any incidents on the road, we will have people on site to hold up the traffic and address any issues that may come up,” he said.

As for the permanent fix to the problem, Sniffen said officials are looking at two options:

>> Covering the entire slope with reinforcing bars and sprayed concrete to prevent erosion.

>> Constructing an extension of the the tunnel structure on the Honolulu-bound side to deflect or catch rocks.

Either way, the work is anticipated to take months to complete, Sniffen said.

More large pieces of debris and concrete fell onto the closed Honolulu-bound lane of the Pali Highway late Tuesday, causing HDOT officials to scrap plans to temporarily open the Kailua- bound direction from 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Instead, crews on Wednesday scaled the slopes above the Pali Highway to bring down additional loose debris as well as a precarious concrete structure on the Old Pali Road, which had been damaged in a rockfall on Monday.

Officials reported Wednesday night that crews successfully cut away the most dangerous section of the old road and it no longer poses a threat to the highway below.

Commuters into Honolulu from Windward Oahu on Wednesday continued to report heavy traffic on the alternative routes, including the H-3 Freeway and the Likelike and Kalanianaole highways.

State and city officials announced Wednesday they will extend Kalanianaole Highway’s morning HOV contraflow lanes until 9 a.m. through Friday to help ease congestion.

In addition, the city has adjusted the traffic signal timing on Likelike Highway to prioritize Honolulu-bound traffic during the morning rush hours. This week’s previously planned lane closures on Likelike Highway and the H-3 Freeway have been postponed.

Meanwhile, riders of TheBus on Wednesday said their commutes between Windward Oahu and downtown were taking twice as long as usual.

John Nakagawa of Kailua usually takes TheBus Route 56 over the Pali Highway but it has been temporarily rerouted onto the H3. As a result, a commute that usually lasts 45 minutes now takes an hour and a half.

He said Tuesday wasn’t too bad, but Wednesday was much worse.

“It’s one of those things you can’t control. … It’s frustrating but there’s nothing you can do,” he said. “So you just have to work around it.”

Mike Yoshida said he used TheBus Tuesday to get from downtown to a meeting in Halawa. It usually takes him 20 minutes, he said, but this time it took an extra hour.

Eric Camero, who uses TheBus almost every day to travel between downtown, Waikiki, and Kalihi said he’s running into frustrating delays.

“They’re not coming,” Camero said of the buses he usually takes. He said he’s had to wait up to an hour. “You’re gonna be late to where you gotta go. And you know, doctors don’t understand that. So I have to reschedule and all that stuff. It’s a mess.”

An estimated 50,000 vehicles travel the Pali Highway everyday, officials said, while roughly an equal number of motorists use the H-3 Freeway and the Likelike Highway.

Star-Advertiser staff writer Tyne Phillips contributed to this report.