The State Department of Transportation is about to start a project, which they hope will help ease pau hana traffic on the freeway through the Red Hill area.
They’re going to be adding an extra westbound lane, just like they did between Pali and Punahou over the summer.
This is how it usually looks on the Moanalua Freeway during the pau hana rush hour in the Red Hill area.
"This is a heavily traveled area. There are bottlenecks, so we’re hoping this will help clear some of that up," said Caroline Sluyter, State DOT Spokeswoman.
"This" referring to the 4th lane being added to this area.
Starting Sunday, December 9th at night, crews will begin the process of re-striping the lanes to add an extra westbound lane, which will start at the Stadium/Halawa/Camp Smith exit.
"So right here, instead of having this merge lane there will actually be four lanes, and you won’t have to merge right there when the project’s finished. It’ll continue on," said Sluyter.
And it’ll continue on all the way to the Aiea – H1 split.
Currently only one lane of traffic gets off at Aiea/Pearlridge, but once they add a 4th lane, he two left lanes will exit at Aiea/Pearlridge, and the other two will still continue on to the H1 Freeway towards Pearl City.
Each of the four lanes will be eleven feet wide, just a foot smaller than the current lanes.
And again — the project will begin this coming Sunday, and is scheduled to take seven days to complete.
"It’s going to be nighttime work. Pretty much from 9pm to 4am on the first few nights, then from 10pm to 6am on the last few nights, so we’re trying to not to inconvenience the public," said Sluyter.
And during those hours .. Two lanes will be closed.
"It’ll just be fewer lanes while we’re working. But we won’t have any ramp closures. So if all goes as scheduled, on the 17th of December the public should be able to start using it," said Sluyter.
And that’ll be just in time to help alleviate some of the holiday traffic as well — and it’ll be right before the crews go on break.
The State is stopping all major road projects for about two weeks, starting December 20th.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
