Drivers beware.
Expect major traffic delays due to construction again Sunday on the H-1 freeway in the Pearl City area.
For a second time this month, Leeward Oahu drivers will be bumper to bumper on a Sunday as the state gears up to close multiple lanes of the H-1 freeway in the Pearl City area in an attempt to catch up after falling behind in its repaving schedule.
Drivers have also noticed — and complained — that weeknight closures related to construction on that stretch of the highway are occurring much earlier in the evening than normal, sometimes starting before rush-hour traffic has had time to clear.
"We understand people’s frustration, and it’s unfortunate we have to get the work done but there really isn’t a good time to do it," Department of Transportation spokeswoman Caroline Sluyter said. "We can’t really shut it down during the day, and then at night it’s really noisy and it’s inconveniencing the neighbors."
So the work is also being done much earlier in the day than is typical for repavement projects.
As for Sunday, two left lanes will be closed in the westbound direction between the Pearl City/Waimalu offramp (Exit 10) and the Waipahu offramp (Exit 8-B) from 9 a.m. Sunday to 5 a.m. Monday. A third lane will close starting at 6:30 p.m., and a fourth lane will be blocked off at midnight.
In addition, two left lanes in the eastbound direction will be closed from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
Sluyter said the state has been closing three westbound lanes in that corridor from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., and a fourth at midnight, Mondays through Thursdays since August to resurface the road and ready it for an afternoon Zipper Lane.
"It needed to be rehabilitated anyway because it needed major repairs," she said. "And it’s also part of the p.m. Zipper Lane project."
Weeknight work will only happen on Monday and Tuesday this week because of the holiday.
Sluyter said the state got approval for the weeknight lane closures to begin at 8 p.m. because the hydroblasting work that needs to be done to remove the existing concrete is extremely noisy. The time was recently bumped up to 7 p.m. — and the Sunday workdays added — as a way to make up for time that was lost as a result of recent traffic accidents that tied up the corridor for hours and prevented crews from working their scheduled shifts.
Sluyter said work had to be halted in mid-October after a truck towing a forklift crashed into the pedestrian bridge over Moanalua Freeway near Aloha Stadium, and again when an empty garbage truck crashed into the Zipper Lane median near the Kaonohi overpass on Oct. 31, causing police to close two Ewa-bound and three Honolulu-bound lanes for more than five hours.
"Because of those delays and because of those noise issues, we’re trying to get the work done a little bit more quickly," she said.
Sunday lane closures also occurred Nov. 4 and are set to happen again Dec. 2 as a test run to see whether closing lanes on Sunday is a viable option for the state.
"A decision will be made later whether they’ll do the Sundays in the future," Sluyter said. "(We’re) primarily doing it as a way to catch up and because it is such an inconvenience for the neighbors having the noise."
According to Sluyter, crews accomplish roughly four times more work on a Sunday than they do during a weeknight shift.
Once DOT completes the westbound surface repairs from the Pearl City/Waimalu offramp to the Waipahu offramp, it will turn around and do the same work in the town-bound lanes.
Sluyter said westbound repairs are supposed to be wrapped up in spring, and then the six months of eastbound work will begin. Work that needs to be done to ready the freeway for the afternoon Zipper Lane past the Waipahu offramp will begin at a later date.
Lane closures are expected to continue until DOT finishes the entire Zipper Lane project, which is expected to be sometime during summer 2014.
