By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Bureau
HAWAI‘I KAI — Despite pleas from some residents that roadwork be done at night, road crews will work only during the day when they replace water mains along Kalaniana‘ole Highway in April, state officials said last night.
However, officials are not ruling out night work when it comes time to repave, said Marilyn Kali, state Department of Transportation spokeswoman. Crews are expected to begin preliminary work next Wednesday and the department will monitor traffic closely, Kali said.
"If congestion gets so bad, we might revisit it," Kali said. "We don’t think it will be anything like it was during the widening project in 1990. "
It took state crews five years to widen Kalaniana‘ole Highway from West Hind Drive to Hawai‘i Kai in the 1990s.
This year’s first phase, a quarter-mile from ‘üinakoa Avenue to Laukahi Street, is expected to take four months. The second leg, three-quarters of a mile from Kaimoku Street to West Hind Drive, will take nine months. The remaining time will be used for repaving and guardrail improvements.
The state is looking into paving at night and asking the contractor to work from both ends on the longer lengths of pipe, said Martin Okabe, O‘ahu District Highways manager.
Still the Hawai‘i Kai Neighborhood Board voted 9-2 last night in favor of urging the department to order work at night only, to lessen traffic problems. The Wai‘alae Golf Course Subdivision also has said it would favor night work, but only if it would shorten the two-year timetable.
"To only have daytime work would definitely affect businesses in this area," said Bob Clark, a Hawai‘i Kai Neighborhood Board member.
About a mile of roadway will be torn up as crews dig up Kalaniana‘ole from West Hind Drive to ‘üinakoa Avenue to replace water mains and guardrails and then repave. The main work is expected to start April 9.
Crews will cone off two mauka town-bound lanes from Kalani‘iki Street to ‘Ainakoa Avenue and set up a contraflow lane so motorists will have two lanes heading east and two west.
[back to top] |
