Huge H-1 traffic A spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation says the state has learned a lesson from a traffic mess Friday night and will not close three lanes of the H-1 Freeway so early in the evening for road repairs again.
snarl teaches
DOT a lesson
By Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com
"Highway crews did not realize how bad the traffic would be backed up from such a closure," said Department of Transportation spokeswoman Marilyn Kali. "We'll be working with them to make sure we don't close lanes that early in the future."
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Ewa-bound traffic on the H-1 Freeway, as seen from this view from the Kaonohi Street overpass, was slowed Friday night due to the closure of several lanes near Pearl City.
Traffic backed up for miles when crews closed the three left lanes of the H-1 freeway westbound between the Pearl City Interchange and the Waipahu off-ramp from 9 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. yesterday to replace pavement markers.
Margie Nancnac, who works at Sears Pearlridge, said she had never seen so much traffic at 10 p.m. on a Friday.
"They can't do that on a weekend," she said. "When are they going to learn?"
"It was really bad," said an Ewa woman who would only identify herself as Linda.
"It was closed down for miles, and all they were doing was replacing those disks."
The sign said the two left lanes were closed, she said, but she later found out a third lane was closed, leaving only two lanes for travel.
"My husband wanted to use the bathroom," she said. "He waited. He held on."
"They could have put bulletins out or warned everybody ahead, especially on Friday night," said Brandi Iungerman of Pearl City.
She and a friend were caught going between Pearlridge and the Waipahu Wal-Mart and didn't see the lane closure sign until they got to the construction.
What should have taken 10 minutes turned out to be a 45-minute trip, she said.
The DOT issued a media advisory the same evening of the closure, leaving little or no time for news reports.
Kali said that signs on the road are the primary means of notifying people who travel the route of the closure, and they were up.
Aiea resident Sonny Iereneo was on his way to a friend's house in Waipahu, but after hitting the wall of traffic, took the Pearl City cutoff, turned around and went home.
"I missed the party," he said.
