"Hallelujah," Malama said. "Somebody is finally stepping up to make it happen."

Malama, who chairs the 'Ewa Neighborhood Board, was just one of many officials and residents singing the road's praises at yesterday's groundbreaking.

Most said it was a long time — too long — in coming. Everyone said better late than never.

"We're doing more than building a road today. We're building a community," Gov. Linda Lingle said.

The first phase of the project, which will include one reversible contraflow lane, is expected to be completed by the end of 2008. The second phase will see the road built out to six lanes, state officials said.

When Malama first moved to 'Ewa Beach as a child, the area was still rural and dominated by sugar cane fields. As the area grew by leaps and bounds in the coming decades, with thousands of new homes built, Fort Weaver's long curving road remained the only way in or out of 'Ewa Beach, sometimes referred to as the ultimate cul-de-sac.

"After I went away to college and would come back periodically, you could just see an explosion of homes and communities," Malama said. "But all the time there was just one road."

As early as the 1960s, state officials had discussed creating the alternative route, but there was always an excuse.

"First there was no money. Then there was the red 'ilima (an endangered native shrub found in the path of the road). There was always some reason why they said it couldn't be done. I told them, 'Don't say no can. Tell me how can,' " Malama said.

Yesterday there were no more delays.

"This is for the future of O'ahu," said Lorraine Inouye, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee.

Located between the Kapolei and 'Ewa communities, the road is expected to not only alleviate rush-hour congestion but create new links between two of the fastest-growing communities on O'ahu.

It also will provide access to the proposed University of Hawai'i-West O'ahu campus and planned Department of Hawaiian Home Lands housing developments.

Facilitating the university development will help thousands of other frustrated drivers around O'ahu by letting students stay closer to home, said Rep. Mark Moses, R-40th (Makakilo, Kapolei, Royal Kunia), who moved to the area in 1981.

"You know how the traffic is so much better when the university is not in session? We can take half of the university traffic off the freeway and open up the roads like that all the time," Moses said.

'Ewa residents, though, were seeking more immediate relief.

"It will alleviate a lot of the traffic on Fort Weaver Road," said Lark Cabreros, a resident of the Kulaleia development on the 'Ewa Plain who sometimes spends 45 minutes in a car to take her kids from home to school, a distance of less than 2 miles.

"I sure hope it helps," added truck driver Cliff Bega. "Traffic is so bad it's ridiculous. Sometimes you can see traffic lined up for miles in rush hour. And it's just as bad on the weekends."

As pleased as Malama was with the ground-breaking, she was far from satisfied, suggesting that the state and city have several other road projects on the drawing board that need to be started as well.

One idea discussed yesterday was to build an underwater tunnel from 'Ewa Beach to Sand Island. It sounded impossible.

"That's what they said about the North-South Road 20 years ago, too," Malama said.