The roadwork and lane closures to replace aging waterlines beneath Ward Avenue will go on at least three months longer than utility officials anticipated — and the repaving along Kapiolani Boulevard will continue at least several weeks longer than the city planned, officials say.

Combined, those public works projects have already slowed traffic for more than eight months in several directions around Blaisdell Center. They have not only lengthened commute times, but also discouraged customers, some nearby business owners say.

When the work on Ward is complete, Board of Water Supply officials say they will shift to their next big project, which will be replacing waterlines at Kapiolani where the street runs mauka of the Ala Wai Canal.

The water utility had planned to wrap up work in May to replace about 2,400 feet of decades-old waterlines along Ward. However, now they say they’re shooting for the end of August to complete the remaining 600 feet.

"We can never tell" for sure given the delays the project has already encountered, BWS information specialist Dymian Racoma said.

After the Ward work started in October, construction crews found abandoned lines blocking the path of the new ones, prompting redesign work, Racoma said. Delays in getting approvals from the city Department of Transportation Services and the state Department of Transportation as well as rain-related problems also slowed progress, Racoma said.

The work typically can’t be done at night because it would violate city noise restrictions, he added. However, some work was scheduled for overnight Monday and Tuesday because it would have been particularly disruptive to daytime traffic, BWS officials say.

"We just hear complaints" from customers, said Yumi Iseki, owner of Naturally Pet store makai of the work on Ward Avenue. People say they hate making the drive to the stores there because of the construction, Iseki said. Other nearby business owners agreed, calling the continuing traffic delays along Ward and Kapiolani a "disaster" but declining to give their names for fear of potential repercussions.

After Ward, BWS will do another major waterline replacement project on Kapiolani between McCully and Date streets, Racoma said. The construction could start as early as this fall, likely would affect Ewa-bound traffic on Kapiolani and could take about a year to complete, he added.

It is BWS’ only major waterline replacement project planned after the work on Ward, Racoma said.

Meanwhile, contractors repaving the roadway and installing concrete bus lanes on Kapiolani between South Street and Ward say they are shooting to finish by the end of July — even though the work on that city contract was scheduled to end this month.

Similar to the holdups cited at Ward, contractors doing the Kapiolani work said they were slowed by rain and permit delays, this time with the state Department of Health.

The Kapiolani work, which started in July, involved digging out old pavement and concrete and reinforcing the road to make the repairs last longer, said Ron Lundy, vice president of Pearl City-based Haron Construction.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration is working on what he hopes will be an unprecedented campaign to pave nearly 1,500 of the city’s more than 3,500 lane-miles in the next five years, at a price tag of $150 million a year.

"All of our projects are being coordinated" between the water utility and the city to avoid repetitively digging up roadways, Racoma said.