Starting Monday, the 71,000 drivers who maneuver Kalanianaole Highway each day in East Oahu and the 25,000 drivers who use Kamehameha Highway in Waipio and Mililani will face roadwork — and lane closures — expected to last into 2016.
State transportation officials on Wednesday announced their latest round of overdue repairs to major Oahu roadways. While crews have done spot fixes along Kalanianaole Highway, it’s been nearly 30 years since they’ve done a full, comprehensive repair from West Hind Drive to Hanauma Bay, state Department of Transportation Highways Administrator Alvin Takeshita said.
That means the work starting there next week is about 15 years overdue — and it’s nearly as overdue along the Kamehameha stretch in central Oahu, officials say.
"Working through these corridors is often very unpopular due to the inevitable inconveniences that they create," Jadine Urasaki, DOT’s director for capital improvement projects, said Wednesday. "However, we all know that it has to get done."
Waialae Iki resident Paula Carroll said East Oahu residents have been hearing about the Kalanianaole project for the past two years or so.
"I know it’s going to be a real problem in terms of traffic flow," Carroll said. Nonetheless, "it’s a good thing because the road has been like off-roading there. My car’s been really beat up from the lumps and the bumps so far."
The majority of the repair and reconstruction work to both highway stretches will take place during the day, on weekdays, to avoid what DOT officials said would be severe impacts at night to nearby homes — particularly those residences fronting the Kalanianaole roadway.
But the limited daytime schedule means the road repairs won’t be done until February 2016 in East Oahu and summer 2016 in Mililani, officials said.
The $14 million Kalanianaole Highway project, which includes 21 lane-miles of repairs, will take place from West Hind Drive to Hawaii Kai Drive 9 a.m to 3 p.m. and from Hawaii Kai to Hanauma Bay Road 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays, according to DOT. Along four-lane stretches, two lanes will be closed while roadwork is underway, with traffic contraflowed so that two lanes will remain open for traffic to travel in both directions, officials said.
Crews will also use the project as a chance to fix broken "loop detectors" at intersections — tools built into the road that sense when a vehicle is waiting on a side street that intersects with the highway. When those magnetized detectors are broken, the traffic light reverts back to a timed interval, often unnecessarily stopping the highway traffic and causing drivers headaches, Takeshita said.
The $13.3 million Kamehameha Highway repair project will run from Ka Uka Boulevard to Waihau Street, with work running 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays. As the project nears completion there will be full nighttime closures of Kipapa Bridge, officials say.
Both repair projects will rely on 80 percent federal funds, state officials said.
The new projects begin as work nears completion on lengthy, major H-1 repairs in town — an undertaking to essentially rebuild the roadway that has prompted full overnight closures in recent weeks. Closures are expected to continue through mid-July, when the work is slated to wrap up. The state further continues to work to widen the westbound H-1 in two locations heading into West Oahu: between the Pearl City/Waimalu onramp and the Waipahu offramp, and between the H-1/H-2 split and the Waikele offramp. The bulk of that work is expected to be done at the end of 2014, Urasaki said.
