By Cindy Ellen Russell, Star-Bulletin
Jeannie Schultz commutes from Kailua to Kapolei.
Using H-3 since it opened, she has cut her drive time from
70 minutes to 35.

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H-3 a success
at 6 months

Commuters, shoppers, engineers
and even its opposers praise its
beauty and the time it saves

Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

Six months ago, Jeanne Schultz's rush-hour commute from Kailua to Kapolei took about 70 minutes, but that varied depending on which of the two dozen traffic lights along her route got in her way.

Nowadays, however, Schultz's commute takes a predictable 35 minutes, give or take a minute, with only a few traffic signals to slow her down.

The difference, says the Campbell Estate marketing manager, is the H-3 freeway.

"I think in addition to just cutting the time, just the fact that you anticipate how long it's going to take is just great," said Schultz, who now has time to watch the sunrise and walk her dog.

"It's like I have part of my life back."

The once-controversial roadway is 6 months old today, and from all indications it's a very happy birthday, said state Highways Administrator Pericles Manthos.

Manthos said the true value of the 16.1-mile, $1.3 billion freeway is the travel time saved. He estimates H-3 has shaved an average of 15 minutes off the Honolulu-bound commute for Windward motorists on all three highways.

People, he said, will drive a few extra miles to save a few extra minutes.

"I think we could say it did much better than we ever expected in acceptance and use," Manthos said.

"It's been one of our best success stories of any project we've ever done. It's turned public opinion around in many ways."

Department statistics show the number of cars making a trans-Koolau trip has jumped since the H-3 opened. On Dec. 1, before H-3, there were 108,036 such trips. But as of April 3, that number increased to 123,660 -- and counting.

H-3 also has cut the number of daily trips made on Likelike Highway by half, with both having similar numbers on April 3. Of the 123,660 trans-Koolau trips made that day, 52,386, or 42 percent, were made on the Pali; 35,768, or 29 percent, on Likelike; and 35,506, or 29 percent, on the H-3.

Originally, state officials hoped the H-3 would draw 10 to 15 percent of the combined 120,000 trans-Koolau trips made daily on the two other highways.

"I have not met anybody in the last six months who has not told me how wonderful H-3 is," said state Transportation spokeswoman Marilyn Kali.

By Cindy Ellen Russell, Star-Bulletin
"It's like I have a part of my life back," says Schultz.

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"All kinds of people -- even those who opposed the project -- have said how beautiful it is, how much quicker it is and how much they're enjoying it," Kali said.

Both Windward Mall and Pearlridge Center have reported increased business because of the greater access afforded by H-3.

Besides local acceptance, the freeway has earned national honors. It was just named the 1998 outstanding civil engineering project by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Society President Luther W. Graef, in an April 23 letter to the Hawaii awards committee, said the award is given annually to a project that demonstrates superior engineering skills and represents the greatest contribution to civil engineering and mankind.

Graef said the award panel chose the project for its scope and complexity. Jurors, he wrote, were impressed with the project's environmental sensitivity, aesthetics and ingenuity.

"The project truly exemplifies how civil engineering problem-solving skills can benefit community transportation needs," he said.

Hawaii has never won the national award, Manthos said. Along with an awards ceremony, H-3 will be featured in a cover story in the July issue of the society's monthly magazine, Civil Engineering.

"This is the grand award from the engineer's point of view; this is the big one. It's a big thing for us," Manthos said.

Despite the accolades, the freeway suffers from growing pains. Blaine Kawamura, manager of H-3's traffic operations center at the Hirano Tunnels, said contractors remain on site to work out minor electrical, mechanical and communication problems that occur with the new equipment.

Also, many management-level jobs at the traffic center aren't filled because those people are being trained from the bottom up. That doesn't jeopardize the safety of H-3, Kawamura stressed.

While bungee-jumping and fern-picking off H-3 are minor occurrences, the freeway's biggest problem is speeding. So far, the top speed clocked by sensors is 127 mph, made by a vehicle going Kaneohe-bound past the tunnels.

On May 26, a 34-year-old city public-works employee died in a traffic accident involving two trucks and a car on H-3. Weather, not speeding, is believed to have caused the accident.

"Operationally, that's been our biggest problem," Kawamura said, referring to speeding. "There's nothing in our jurisdiction that we can really do."

But that may change. The state Legislature recently approved a bill allowing the Transportation Department to use photo radar to issue traffic tickets. The H-3 is the most likely candidate for the test project because its closed-circuit cameras are already in place.

Manthos is optimistic such a system can be ready within a few years, if not sooner.

Among the remaining H-3 contracts is a $11.2 million project for two interpretive centers along the H-3, part of an agreement between the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Transportation Department that stemmed from a 1987 OHA lawsuit over the Luluku archaeological sites in Kaneohe.

Twice since it opened, OHA and Transportation officials have toured sites in Halawa and Kaneohe, but they have not reached an agreement.

OHA spokesman Ryan Mielke said there's plenty of interest by trustees to do something with those areas, but plans still are being drafted.

Throughout the freeway's decades-long construction, native Hawaiians have claimed H-3 has destroyed religious and cultural sites in both valleys, including the Kukuiokane heiau in Kaneohe. Those that remain, including the Hale O Papa and Luakini sites, are still visited regularly by Hawaiians.

Transportation officials said the federal funds for the cultural projects won't lapse as long as OHA actively works on them.

"We're always concerned when money sits," Manthos said.