Nanakuli lanes to open today with 12 new poles

HECO restores power after unusually strong winds halted Waianae Coast traffic

All four lanes of traffic on Farrington Highway were expected to be open to rush-hour traffic this morning after a little more than a day of traffic snarls and utility outages.

Hawaiian Electric Co. yesterday morning replaced all 12 utility poles downed by an unusual high wind in Nanakuli on Sunday described by some witnesses as a "tornado."

But utility companies worked the entire day to restore services, requiring lane closures and crippling traffic in and out of the Waianae Coast.

All lanes are expected to be open this morning, Ann Nishida, a Hawaiian Telcom spokeswoman, said last night.

Hawaiian Electric Co. worked through Sunday night to remove and replace the 12 joint utility poles that toppled at 1:04 p.m. along Farrington Highway between Helelua Street and Lualualei Naval Road.

"It's very unusual," said Lynne Unemori, spokeswoman for HECO, for wind to bring down all those poles. She cited a weather event in the Helemano area in January 2004 in which a string of poles came down.

HECO crews restored power to all but three customers of 1,400 customers by 4:45 p.m. The lines for those three customers were damaged from the street to their homes.

HECO worked with police and Oahu Civil Defense to try to alleviate the traffic problems.

The public was permitted to use Kolekole Pass as a detour route to and from the Waianae Coast through last night. Kolekole Pass runs through the U.S. Naval Magazine at Lualualei over the Waianae Range and connects to Schofield Barracks.

Yesterday morning, two lanes of the four-lane highway were opened -- one townbound, the other Waianae-bound.

By 1 p.m. yesterday, police and Civil Defense opened up the makai shoulder of Farrington from Lualualei Naval Road to Haleakala Avenue to provide a second townbound lane.

At 2:30 p.m., two lanes were used for traffic into Waianae and one for townbound traffic.

After HECO completed its work at 4:45 p.m., it turned over the poles to the other utility companies.

Hawaiian Telcom had completed repairs to its lines by 5 p.m. yesterday. However, the company's repair personnel continued repairs after that for another telecommunications provider, Nishida said.

She said that about 7:30 p.m., the second townbound lane was reopened, causing all four lanes to be open.

Hawaiian Telcom workers will attend to details today, working on the shoulder of the highway, and should not disrupt traffic, Nishida said.

Telephone service to Nanakuli was not disrupted since the cables were not severed.