ZipperLane open to westbound drivers as traffic at standstill
The H-1 freeway was jammed with westbound rush hour traffic Tuesday evening as the zipper lane could not be closed.
The traffic along South and Queen streets in Kakaako was bumper to bumper in Kakaako around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
20141024-6953 WDA ZIPPER LANE The view looking west at the east bound H-1 Zipper Lane being “zipped up” by the Zip Mobile near the Waikele exit. PHOTO BY DENNIS ODA. OCT. 24, 2014.
The H-1 freeway was jammed with westbound rush hour traffic Tuesday evening as the zipper lane could not be closed.
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Pau-hana commutes were running more than three hours to get from downtown to either Kapolei or Mililani Tuesday after the state’s two ZipMobiles went down because of bad battery packs, creating congestion on the H-1 freeway.
Just to go five miles from downtown to Honolulu Airport was taking 42 minutes.
"We absolutely apologize to the public," said Ed Sniffen, deputy director of the State Department of Transportation’s highways division.
State transportation officials said the ZipperLane would remain open for westbound traffic until midnight Tuesday. But motorists would have to enter from Nimitz Highway west of Sand Island and then exit the ZipperLane at Manager’s Drive.
Tuesday evening, drivers will be allowed to drive in the westbound shoulder lane and anyone can use the high-occupancy lane.
Construction crews from the city and from the Honolulu Rail Transit Authority also postponed H-1 projects to ease the congestion.
The problem began Tuesday as the ZipMobile began closing the ZipperLane at 8:30 a.m. in the Waikele area. But at 9:30 a.m."the ZipMobile died," Sniffen said.
Technicians swapped out a battery back from the state’s other ZipMobile, but the spare battery pack also failed. "So the computer can’t run the ZipMobile," Sniffen said.
After towing the ZipMobile out of the way, crews were opening the westbound ZipperLane at 3 p.m.
A technician from the state’s ZipMobile vendor, Zip U There, was flying from the mainland with three battery packs and was scheduled to arrive at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sniffen said.
He hoped the Zip U There technician has a fix for what caused the battery backs to fail.
Zip lanes normally increase capacity by an additional 2,200 vehicles every hour during the morning commute, Sniffen said.
DOT’s two ZipMobiles are 17 years old and officials are working with Zip U There to figure out how much it would cost to overhaul them, Sniffen said.
