Triathlon to limit waterfront access
Access to Ala Moana Beach and the Kakaako and Honolulu Harbor waterfront areas will be limited to pedestrians for most of tomorrow morning for the 2006 Honolulu Triathlon.
The race course is similar to the one for the Great Aloha Run. It starts at Ala Moana Beach Park; heads west along Ala Moana Boulevard, Nimitz Highway and Kamehameha Highway; turns around at Pearl Harbor's Halawa Gate; and finishes back at Ala Moana Park.
The course will be closed to vehicular traffic. No cars will be allowed to cross the course or use the same roadways as participants.
Honolulu police could begin closing roadways as early as 4 a.m. They will reopen streets as participants complete the event. The bicycle portion of the course, from Cooke Street on Ala Moana Boulevard to Halawa Gate, will reopen no later than 10 a.m. Motorists will be able to access the Kakaako waterfront area at South Street. The rest of Ala Moana Boulevard, from Atkinson Drive to Cooke Street, should be open by 11:30 a.m., when all participants are required to complete the triathlon.
People heading to John Dominis Restaurant or Aloha Tower Marketplace for Mother's Day celebrations while the course is still closed will have to park their cars on the mauka side of Ala Moana Boulevard. There will be controlled crossing points for pedestrians at Ward Avenue and Bishop Street.
Eastbound motorists will be able to go to Sand Island and lower Kalihi after getting off the H-1 freeway viaduct and turning right on Sand Island Access Road. But they will not be able to leave the area until the bicycle portion of the race course reopens.
Honolulu Triathlon organizers switched to a new course this year after Mayor Mufi Hannemann threatened to deny them a permit unless they addressed community complaints about accidents and near accidents from an event last October. That event and last year's Honolulu Triathlon started and finished at Kapiolani Park in Waikiki and took participants to and from Hawaii Kai for the bicycle portion. East Honolulu residents also complained their neighborhoods were hosting too many events.
