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Kokua Line
June Watanabe
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Pearl City offramp gets new rules
Question: Will the state Highways Division or contractor provide motorists with a "heads-up" on which added lanes to take for the reconstructed Pearl City offramp? I presume new offramp signs will be installed giving motorists better direction. Also, where do they store all those minibarriers?
Answer: The state Department of Transportation plans to run announcements in the coming weeks to explain the realigned route.
"Weather permitting, we hope to open the widened portion of the (H-1) freeway by the end of June, if not earlier," said transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa.
Here's the heads-up he gave to "Kokua Line" readers:
» Westbound drivers will be able to access the realigned Pearl City/Waimalu offramp from the two right lanes of the freeway by either staying on the new, far-right, Ewa-bound lane to automatically access the offramp or from the second, rightmost lane using a shorter offramp lane.
From there, motorists can head either toward Pearl City or Waimalu, along Moanalua Road.
» The sixth H-1 lane, which used to end at the Kaonohi Overpass, has been extended a mile and a half toward the Pearl City/Waimalu offramp.
"Hopefully, this will alleviate a bottleneck compounded by the three freeways (H-1, H-3 and Moanalua) merging shortly before that," Ishikawa said.
Until then there's still work to be done.
On Friday and Saturday, the westbound lanes of the H-1 will be closed overnight, from 9:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m.
During the closure, workers will re-stripe and adjust lane markers to include the new lane and shoulder.
Also on those two nights, they will install two more overhead signs will be added to inform drivers which lanes to travel in if they want to head toward Mililani/Wahiawa or the Pearl City offramp.
"We decided to hold off installing the remaining overhead freeway destination signs until the realigned offramp is ready, as not to confuse the drivers," Ishikawa said.
As for the ZipperLane barriers used for night construction, he said they are currently owned by project contractor Kiewit Pacific, which will determine their future use.
Auwe
To the person who stole my fanny pack with my driver's license and credit cards Sunday at the Ward Warehouse bandstand. He didn't get much in the way of money, but he sure caused me a lot of pain and inconvenience. I had personal things in there that were very important to me and of no value to anyone else. I'm 76 years old and have always been trusting of people. But there are those out there who are not worthy of that trust, and that's very sad. I hope these little hoods realize that they need to change the way they live their lives. -- Nancy Bey Little
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