Question: The H-3 traffic cameras have been frozen since Nov. 3. Has the Department of Transportation abandoned the website, www.eng.hawaii.edu/hawaiidot/allcams.html?

Answer: The cameras were running again on Dec. 1, after officials resolved a connection problem with the video feed to the website, which is maintained by University of Hawaii civil engineering professor C.S. Papacostas.

"When it was noticed that there was a problem, the server that provides the feed was shut down until the connection could be re-established," explained Edwin Sniffen, administrator of the Highways Division.

That website has been voluntarily maintained by Papacostas, with the help of Warren Yamauchi, manager of the UH College of Engineering Computer Facility, as a service to the community since the late 1990s.

Papacostas said the UH site receives a regularly updated image feed from the Transportation Department’s control center at the H-3’s Harano Tunnels.

"Several years ago the DOT hired a consultant to upgrade their ‘Intelligent Transportation System,’ including the traffic camera service," Papacostas said.

"At that time the plan was to discontinue the feed to us."

That apparently won’t happen.

The department does have a new traveler information website in place — www.goakamai.org — that includes traffic images throughout the island, including the H-3, Sniffen said.

"We greatly appreciate the effort and participation" that Papacostas and Yamauchi have put in for this program, Sniffen said, and planned to work with them directly on linking their site to goakamai.org.

Papacostas said they initially began posting online traffic images for city cameras along the H-1 freeway in 1996.

"With our help, Honolulu was one of the first cities in the world to do it," he said. "Subsequently, we handed over that service to the (city), and they have been maintaining it ever since." See www.eng.hawaii.edu/Trafficam.

More on Karsten Thot

Honolulu resident Gigi Abel provided information on her grandfather whose name not only is given to a bridge in Wahiawa ("Kokua Line," Nov. 27), but to Karsten Drive, as well.

Thot was on a ship from Germany to Brazil when it stopped in Hawaii. His brother went on to Brazil, but Karsten stayed. Thot, 15, knew no English except "ham and eggs," Abel said.

"My great-grandmother Sarah Rhodes taught him English, and he rewarded her by marrying her daughter, my grandmother," Abel said. "I don’t know how he went from grocery clerk to superintendent of Hawaiian Pineapple Co., Brodie 4 district. That’s the American way, I suppose."

Abel said Thot "was beloved for his concern of both the local athletes (coaching a 1926 champion baseball team) and the plantation workers."

Two grandchildren bear his name; Abel is the only grandchild living in Hawaii. She and her brother purchased the plaque that was affixed to the bridge in 1973.

Auwe

To the city for scheduling two Furlough Fridays before Christmas and New Year’s. This makes four Fridays of no city service in December. — Frustrated

Mahalo

To the kind employee at Fisher Hawaii on Cooke Street who assisted us quickly to find a spiral binder as the store was about to close on Dec. 1. It was not a great sale since the binder cost only 16 cents, but my daughter received an A for her project thanks to his assistance. — Amelia

On Vacation

Kokua Line will be on vacation until January.

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.