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Lunalilo closure
has some success
A 90-day closing of the offramp
tries to clear a "choke point"
in morning traffic
Kahala resident Emil Reyes said his morning commute to Pearl Harbor was "unusually smooth," despite leaving his home yesterday later than usual -- at 6:15 a.m.
Usually, he said, if he leaves for work after 6 a.m., "all bets are off."
"If I leave at 6 or especially after 7, it can take at least 10 minutes to half an hour to get from Kahala to the Pali (Highway exit)," Reyes said. "But I got to work at 6:45 a.m.
"I don't know what happened. I thought it would have been a lot busier."
That's the kind of success state transportation officials have been wanting to hear. They described as successful their efforts to eliminate "crisscross" traffic between motorists getting on and off the H-1 freeway near Makiki.
Morning rush-hour traffic appeared to flow easier and with less congestion than usual after transportation officials closed the Lunalilo onramp to the freeway. They funneled motorists to the Vineyard offramp, where drivers can get on the freeway by taking a right on Punchbowl Street from Vineyard.
State officials said the experiment eliminates the usual "choking point" where motorists are forced to slow down while traffic tries to merge from the Lunalilo onramp onto the freeway and from the Vineyard offramp exiting H-1.
"In the morning, you have 4,000 vehicles per hour using the Lunalilo and Vineyard ramps, and when you have that crisscross, people have to brake and that creates a backup," said transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa. "And it's not just traffic backing up the H-1, but also on Makiki surface streets because it backs up along Lunalilo all the way down to Piikoi.
"So this demonstration project is not just good for H-1 commuters, but also for Makiki neighborhoods, as well," he said.
Usually, morning traffic heading westbound along H-1 backs up past the University of Hawaii into Kaimuki. Ishikawa said the experiment forces motorists to make use of the Punchbowl onramp, which he said is underutilized in the mornings.
The experiment to ease the commute from East Honolulu takes place weekdays between 6 and 9:30 a.m. for a 90-day period, beginning yesterday until Oct. 29.
However, Ishikawa said the real test will take place Aug. 23, the first day back to school for UH students, as well as a number of private schools.
"We wanted to do this two weeks before students went back to school so people could get used to it," Ishikawa said.
Portable white plastic poles are placed to separate motorists coming up the ramp from Lunalilo Street and keep them on the right side of the freeway until they reach the Vineyard onramp.
The project cost is estimated at $200,000.
www.state.hi.us/dot
