Contraflow lane opens Friday for Kailua commute

Advertiser Staff

An early-morning contraflow lane on Kalaniana'ole Highway in Windward O'ahu will be opened Friday, state officials said yesterday.

The contraflow lane will be open from 5:30 to 6:45 a.m. from Kapa'a Quarry Road to Castle Junction, Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa said.

Crews this week completed work that will allow one Kailua-bound lane of the highway to be used instead by town-bound commuters, he said.

The lane will be open weekdays while construction work continues on a $7.8 million landslide-prevention project to pare down a dangerously eroding hillside at the intersection.

By the end of the six-month project, the steep hillside, ranked No. 5 on a list of sites where O'ahu motorists are at risk for landslides, will be transformed into a gently terraced slope.