The subdivisions on the 'Ewa Plain are some of the last places on O'ahu where a middle-class family can buy a new four-bedroom home close to the beach.

But that comes with a price: a three- to four-hour roundtrip commute along a handful of traffic-clogged highways leading into downtown Honolulu.

At this point, 'Ewa entrepreneur and Neighborhood Board member Genaro Q. Bimbo is so desperate for any traffic fix that he's grateful for the millions of dollars Congress voted to spend on a new road in his town — though he doubts it will help him.

"Undersea tunnel or subway or bridge. I'll take anything, as long as they do it," he said.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic is a daily reality for thousands on O'ahu.

To ease the congestion, the federal highway spending bill Congress passed last month includes $145.6 million for more than a dozen projects on O'ahu.

Critics say, however, that the money will do little to get rid of the state's traffic jams.

To alleviate chronic road congestion, they say, Hawai'i needs not just to lay more asphalt but to create alternatives to hopping in a car and to build affordable housing closer to the luxury resorts where many people work.

The mountainous terrain created by the volcanic eruptions that formed the Hawaiian Archipelago only exacerbates the state's traffic problems.

O'ahu's severe lack of space prompted Gov. Linda Lingle three years ago to briefly propose building a second level on top of the H-1 Freeway, to create a double-decker highway.

The proposal died amid concerns over costs and aesthetics, but the tale underscores the extremes a state like Hawai'i — which otherwise takes great care to preserve its beauty by banning billboards and limiting the height of buildings — must go to solve its traffic problems.

Some of the roots of congestion are man-made, however. Take inadequate planning.

Developers built subdivisions in 'Ewa before new roads could be built connecting the town to the H-1.

'Ewa residents must now sit in crawling traffic for 30 minutes on the limited existing roads just to get to the freeway each morning.

The same goes for Kapolei, designed as O'ahu's "second city." Developers built government offices, schools and homes in Kapolei years before all the roads planned for the new community were constructed.

Over the past few decades, city and state officials have sporadically mulled more comprehensive solutions — like a rail line — for Honolulu. But talk never turned into action.

The latest proposal stalled this year amid a dispute between Lingle and Mayor Mufi Hannemann over who would collect a special tax the city approved to pay for the project. Last month, Lingle finally allowed the bill giving the counties the authority raise the excise tax to pay for mass transit to become law without her signature.

On the Big Island, luxurious beachside resorts and condominiums have sprouted on the Kohala Coast but with little consideration for how workers staffing the complexes would travel between their jobs and their homes.

Much of Hawai'i's share of the federal spending package will address the bottlenecks created by such haphazard growth — belatedly.

Some $40.8 million will go toward building a new road in 'Ewa to the H-1 and to a new interchange in Kapolei giving the city's residents and workers a badly needed second route into and out of town.

Another $22.4 million will alleviate congestion on the Big Island's Kona-Kohala Coast by expanding the two-lane Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway to four lanes for a 7.5 mile stretch.

But the biggest portion of the Hawai'i allocation — $50 million — goes toward revamping a mountainous Big Island road leading to a military training ground. The route may also give some civilians relief by expanding the options for travel between Hilo, where most people live, and Kona, where most of the new jobs are.

Virginia Isbell, a Big Island councilwoman representing South and North Kona, said the package won't alleviate much traffic because the problems are too deeply rooted to be helped by the spending Congress approved.

She says roads in her district are clogged with hotel receptionists and waiters commuting long distances because they can't afford to live near the high-priced resorts where they work.

"Almost everybody who works in the hotels in Waikoloa are driving to work because there is hardly anyplace to live ... They're driving from Hilo, Puna, Ka'u — every place — they're on the road constantly," Isbell said. "Even if we improve the highways, we're still going to have them congested because people are going home. They leave at dark and they get home at dark."

On O'ahu, Makakilo/Kapolei Neighborhood Board member Michael Golojuch says Honolulu needs to come up with different varieties of transportation instead of just paving more highway.

"You can only have so many cars on the road before it gets bogged down again," the retired military man said.

A ferry running from 'Ewa to downtown Honolulu would be one alternative, he added.

"It's not for everybody, but it's another way of getting around. We need those types of options to give people the idea that you don't always have to get in your car. That there are other ways of getting around."

Scott Ishikawa, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said he didn't know by how much the federal money would reduce the time Hawai'i residents spend stuck in traffic.

"But I don't think sitting and doing nothing is an option at this point. We welcome the federal dollars in helping us getting traffic moving again," Ishikawa said. "There's no silver-bullet solution to the traffic problem."